Me and You Together
by iammemyself
Summary: Takes place after The Beginning.  Sonic and Tails go through a few ordeals on their path to their unbreakable friendship.
1. Chapter 1

Sonic the Hedgehog woke up.  
>He was confused.<br>"Where am I?" he asked, and was a little disturbed to find a fuzzy thing on his arm. He backed away from it quickly, still not knowing where he was. Then he took a closer look at the fuzzball and realized:  
>"Oh yeah! Tails took me to his house!" He suddenly became excited and started bouncing on the bed. "Tails! Tails! Hey!"<br>"Hm?" mumbled Tails, still curled up next to Sonic's arm. "AAH!" he yelled. "There's a stranger in my bed! Stranger danger! Stranger danger!"  
>"Whoa whoa whoa!" said Sonic. "Hold it, it's me, it's Sonic!"<br>"I dunno anyone named Sonic!" yelped Tails. "Oh. Wait a minute. Yes I do!" He stood up happily and jumped on Sonic, giving him a big hug. "Hi Sonic! Hi hi there!"  
>Sonic laughed and hugged Tails back. "Hi hi yourself!" he said. He had never been so happy before.<br>"I'm hungry," said Tails, jumping off of the bed. "I wanna see what mommy has for me!"  
>Sonic jumped off behind him and would have followed him downstairs except that he saw a smear of blood on his arm. It surprised him.<br>"I'm bleeding?" he said.  
>"Oh no!" said Tails, running back and standing on tiptoe to take a look. "Did I hurt you?"<br>"How could you possibly have hurt me?" asked Sonic, starting to remember just why there were cuts all over his arms.  
>"I'm teething," said Tails, and he showed Sonic his sharp little teeth.<br>"That took you a long time," said Sonic, trying not to think about the day before.  
>"I'm kitsune," said the little boy as if that explained everything.<br>"So?" said Sonic.  
>"They live a long time," explained Tails. "So if I'm slow at stuff that's why."<br>"I wish I had an excuse like that," said Sonic as they went downstairs.  
>"Did I do a good job?" asked Tails, who had to take a lot of extra steps to keep up with Sonic.<br>"Doing what?"  
>"Fixin' ya," he answered.<br>"What do you mean?"  
>"From your accident," said Tails, stopping and turning around in front of Sonic. "I'm not very good at it yet, but that's okay, 'cause I'm not s'posed to be able to do it anyways."<br>Sonic looked at the wrists he had been avoiding looking at.  
>Each one had a couple of jagged scars, and that was all.<br>"How-how did that happen?" Sonic asked, amazed. "They...they should still be bleeding, shouldn't they?"  
>"I healed ya," said Tails happily, twirling in a circle. "I'm only s'posed to be able to heal myself, but I can't do that at ALL."<br>"Wow...thank you," said Sonic.  
>"Well, I gots a book that said that if ya bleed too much ya die, and I know you already bled lots, so I tole myself I gotta fixya up right away," said Tails, and all of a sudden he started to cry a little.<br>"What's the matter?" asked Sonic, alarmed.  
>"I...I was scared," sniffed Tails. "I din't want ya to die. You're my bestest friend ever!"<br>"Well...I'm okay now, right?" said Sonic, bending down to his level. "You're not scared anymore, right?"  
>"What if I didn't do it right?" asked Tails, rubbing at his eyes with his fists. "What if I wake up and you have no more blood left in you? Then you'll be all gone and...and..." He was trying really hard not to cry, but Sonic could see that it wasn't going to work. He gave Tails a hug.<br>"Hey, it's okay," said Sonic, trying to think of what would make him feel better. "I'm not gonna die. You saved me, buddy! And you did a good job too!"  
>"I did?" said Tails, sniffing a little.<br>"Yeah," said Sonic, letting go. "You really did. I bet a doctor couldn'tve done any better."  
>"Yay!" said Tails, and he was instantly okay again, save for a sniff every now and again, but he couldn't help that. "Hey Sonic," he said, looking up at Sonic with his big blue eyes, "ya wanna stay at my house, with me?"<br>"Um..." said Sonic. He didn't want to go back to his house, but he knew that you weren't supposed to start living in other people's houses on the spot.  
>"Oh, maybe I should tell mommy first," said Tails, and he ran the rest of the way to the kitchen. "Mommy mommy!" said Tails, jumping up and down on his mother's leg, "Sonic's gonna live here, okay?"<br>"Forever?" asked his mother, bending down and picking up her little boy.  
>"Longer than that!" said Tails, snuggling in her arms.<br>"I don't know, Miles, forever is very long," said his mother. Sonic was left to stand there dumbly. He didn't remember if he had met this woman or not.  
>"Hello dear," said the woman, giving Sonic her other hand, "my name is Rosemary. Are you feeling all right?"<br>He almost forgot what the hand was for. "Uh...yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he said, shaking her hand awkwardly. He didn't usually use his right hand unless absolutely necessary.  
>"Would you mind if I took you to the doctor?" she asked, putting Tails on the table and giving him a bowl of applesauce. He started to eat it with his fingers.<br>"I...I don't really like doctors," said Sonic, a little shyly, remembering what the doctor had said to him so long ago, words which haunted him to this very day:  
>"Your son is retarded."<br>At the time, he hadn't known the significance of the words, but now he knew what power they had.  
>"Have you been ill recently?" asked Rosemary, wiping off Tails's fingers and giving him a spoon. He licked at a little and then went back to using his fingers.<br>"Um...no," said Sonic.  
>"Well," said Rosemary, "I'm just trying to make sure you're okay, my dear. You look like you just got over something that took its toll on you."<br>Sonic realized what she was talking about. "Oh! I always look like this."  
>"That can't be healthy," said Rosemary. "And how are your arms?" "All better!" announced Tails, and his mother gave him the spoon again. He looked at it and threw it across the room. "I don't wanna use it!" he said.<br>"Miles," said his mother warningly. Tails got up, retrieved the spoon, and went back to his applesauce. For the first few moments he was angry about having to use the spoon, but he quickly got over it.  
>"Well...I guess I could go," said Sonic, unconsciously hugging himself.<br>"If it makes you too uncomfortable we'll leave," said Rosemary. "Are you hungry at all?"  
>"No," said Sonic. In truth he wasn't. He was feeling a little dizzy, and he felt tired even though he had just gotten out of bed.<br>After Tails had finished his applesauce Rosemary took them into town to see the doctor. Tails insisted on walking with Sonic, even though Rosemary and Sonic could both tell that having to walk so fast took its toll on him. Unfortunately, they couldn't really slow down, because they didn't have all day.  
>"Y'know what?" said Sonic, and he stopped and snatched up Tails. Tails squealed as Sonic put him on his shoulders.<br>"There ya go," said Sonic. "Now ya don't have to walk."  
>"Yay!" Tails giggled, hugging Sonic's neck.<br>"Hey, I need to breathe here!" Sonic said, and Tails let go a little, still laughing.  
>They arrived early enough that they were able to walk right in. Sonic put Tails down and Tails grabbed Sonic's hand. "Don' worry," he whispered very loudly. "I'll save you from him if he's mean!"<br>Sonic couldn't help but laugh. "You do that!" he said.  
>When the doctor arrived Rosemary asked, "What do you think I should do? He looks kind of-" She paused, not quite knowing which word to say.<br>"Well, amputation is really the only option," said the doctor, pushing his glasses up higher and looking seriously at Rosemary. "You really can't leave him like that."  
>"He wants to cut my hands off!" whispered Sonic to Tails. Tails clutched Sonic's hand with both of his own.<br>"Hey mister! It's all fixed, you don' need to amputate!" he cried.  
>"Of course I do, little one," said the doctor. "You don't want to walk around like that forever, do you?"<br>All of a sudden it hit Sonic who the doctor was talking about.  
>"You wanna amputate HIM?" he asked.<br>"Well of course," said the doctor.  
>"Whaddaya mean of course? What on Mobius are ya gonna cut off?" Sonic demanded.<br>"His other tail," said the doctor, as if it were obvious.  
>Tails's eyes grew very large. "He's gonna cut me up?" he shrieked.<br>"No way!" said Sonic. "That ain't happenin'!"  
>"Maybe you boys should leave the room for a moment, and let me speak to the doctor," said Rosemary.<br>"Maybe we should," said Sonic, giving the doctor a dirty look. "I hate doctors," he said.  
>Sonic sat down on the curb outside the office with Tails in his lap. Tails started to cry.<br>"The doctor wants to cut me up!" he said, burrowing his little wet face in Sonic's chest.  
>"Don't worry," said Sonic, "I won't let him."<br>"You won't?" said Tails hopefully.  
>"No way no way," said Sonic. "There's nothing wrong with them."<br>Tails fell silent after this, which Sonic didn't like, because the dizziness was getting worse, and he was getting a headache on top of that. If he was talkikng to Tails he was distracted from this. But Tails would not talk anymore.

After a while Rosemary came back. "He said you probably have celiac disease, Sonic," said Rosemary, as they started home. Sonic had Tails in his arms. Tails was still upset, sniffling every once in a while. Sonic understood how he felt. When even the doctor said there was something wrong with you, you didn't feel too good about yourself.  
>Rosemary explained what celiac disease was to Sonic. The dizziness and the headache made it hard to concentrate, but he was pretty sure that all it meant was he couldn't eat certain things or he would make himself very sick in the future. Well, what was he supposed to do? If it was gonna make him sick he wasn't gonna do it! By the time they were almost home his arms were tired, so he tried to hand Tails off to his mother. Tails started yelling in protest.<br>"No, Sonic!" he said, "No, I wanna stay with you!"  
>"My arms hurt," Sonic mumbled, as Rosemary managed to take Tails from him, and all of a sudden the dizziness got so bad he couldn't tell up from down and his headache got so bad he was pretty sure he no longer had a brain, and then with a bright flash of red he shut down. <p>


	2. Chapter 2

When he opened his eyes again he was lying in bed. It was very dark. His head hurt a lot and he felt kind of shaky. But he really didn't like staying in bed, doing nothing, so he got up and went downstairs, not knowing what time it was.  
>Rosemary was sitting in the living room with Tails in her arms, stroking his little head rhythmically. She was reading a book on her lap. Every once in a while Tails would look over at the book, trying to read it from his position, but his mother would put a hand behind his head and tu ell him, "Ssh," and he would go back to trying to sleep.<br>"Hey," said Sonic, coming down the stairs.  
>"Are you feeling better?" asked Rosemary, closing her book. Tails turned his head to look at Sonic. Sonic could tell he was very, very tired.<br>"What happened?"  
>"You fainted," said Rosemary, looking at Sonic with concern. "Oh," said Sonic. "I don't know why that happened."<br>"You must have lost quite a lot of blood the other day," Rosemary said. "That could have caused it."  
>"Yeah, that was probably it," said Sonic, realizing that Rosemary must have cleaned him up when Tails brought him home. "I have a headache too," he admitted.<br>"Do you want something for it?" she asked, rubbing at her ankle absently.  
>"Yeah," said Sonic. "Please," he added, almost too late. Rosemary only smiled and got up. Tails whined a little. "Ssh," she said. "Go to sleep."<br>"No," he said in a little voice.  
>"Why won't he go to sleep?" asked Sonic, following Rosemary to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.<br>"He wants to sleep with you," said Rosemary, "but I didn't want to disturb you."  
>That was something new to Sonic.<br>"He wants to sleep with me so much he won't go to sleep?" he asked incredulously.  
>"He's really taken to you," said Rosemary, giving Sonic some Tylenol and a cup of water. "But I need to talk to you, Sonic, so he's going to have to sleep pretty soon."<br>"No," said Tails, but his voice was smaller than before, and he was struggling to keep his eyes open.  
>Soon after Sonic took the medicine he felt a lot better. He wouldn'tve minded going back to bed, because he had become a bit drowsy, but Tails finally couldn't stay awake any longer.<br>"Sonic," said Rosemary, turning the light down lower so Tails could sleep, "why hasn't anyone come looking for you?"  
>"I don't know," said Sonic.<br>"Well, don't you want to go home?" she asked.  
>"Hell no," said Sonic. All of a sudden there was a rage inside of him, a primal anger at the mention of the place he had come from. "I never want to go back there again! I hate it there, I hate it!"<br>"That doesn't mean you can just leave and not go back," said Rosemary. "If something like this happened to Miles I would most certainly want to know where he was."  
>"I know no one is wondering where I am," said Sonic bitterly. "They're probably happy."<br>Rosemary was very concerned. She could not fathom having a family that wouldn't care if one of its members just disappeared.  
>"Honey, why would they be happy?" asked Rosemary. "Because they hate me, and I hate them!" said Sonic, and for some reason he started to cry. He didn't understand why he started crying, he just did. He tried to hide it, but Rosemary was a mother, and mothers are able to find out these things no matter how well they are hidden.<br>She reached over and hugged Sonic to her with her other arm. "I'm so sorry," she said.  
>Sonic knew she didn't understand.<br>But he didn't want to tell her.  
>He didn't want to tell her what had happened. She didn't even know what the "accident" was. She only knew that her little boy had brought home a hedgehog that was bleeding to death one day, and she had taken it upon herself to make sure he was okay.<br>Sonic had to keep reminding himself that no one knew what he had done. He had this bizarre sense that everyone knew, even passers-by, even though that was silly. But that was how he felt.  
>"Do you want to stay here?" asked Rosemary quietly. "Yes," he sniffled. "I want to stay here forever."<br>"Forever is a long time, little one," she said. "You may find that you miss them."  
>"I won't," said Sonic. "'Specially since I know they won't miss me."<br>"Where are you from, Sonic?" asked Rosemary, deciding she would try to find out where he lived so she could return him home if indeed his family missed him.  
>"The Green Hill Zone," he mumbled, half asleep, not paying attention.<br>Rosemary sat up abruptly.  
>"What did you say?"<br>"The Green Hill Zone," said Sonic, a little annoyed that he had to wake back up. He sat back up and rubbed his face. He could see Tails waking up as well. Tails was very confused and he rapidly became upset.  
>"Why am I sleeping?" he asked. "I'm waiting for Sonic!"<br>"Honey, just give me one more minute," Rosemary said to him, holding him close to her to try and calm him down. "One more time, Sonic?"  
>"THE GREEN FREAKIN' HILL ZONE!" Sonic yelled, very annoyed at having had to repeat it three times. It wasn't THAT hard to remember, was it?<br>"Do you have any idea where you are right now?" asked Rosemary.  
>"I'm at your house," said Sonic, wondering when these stupid questions were going to end.<br>"Yes, my dear, but do you know where my house is?"  
>"I guess not," said Sonic sarcastically.<br>"Sonic," said Rosemary, "I have no idea how you got here.  
>"I live in the Emerald Hill Zone."<br>Sonic stared at her.  
>"The...the...Emerald...Hill Zone?"<br>"Yes," said Rosemary. "The Emerald Hill Zone."  
>"Oh boy," said Sonic.<br>"Sonic," said Rosemary, "you're a long, long way from home."


	3. Chapter 3

Really sorry about the wait, hope it was worth it!

Chapter 4

Sonic stood there in shock.  
>"A...are you sure?" he asked.<br>"Of course," said Rosemary. "To get to the Emerald Hill Zone you have to pass through about 6 or 7 other zones first. I'm not sure of all of them," she admitted, "because I don't really leave the Emerald Hill Zone often, but I remember my husband telling me that once he got dropped off in the Green Hill Zone by mistake, and it would have taken him another day to get here when the plane came back."  
>"So...how did I get here?" asked Sonic.<br>"You runned!" said Tails happily.  
>"Don't be silly, dear, " said Rosemary. "There's no way he could have run that fast."<br>"Uh-huh," said Tails. "I sawed him."  
>"You saw him run really fast?" asked Rosemary in disbelief.<br>"Yep!" said Tails. "Whydya think I named him Sonic, huh?" He sat up animatedly, no longer tired, exhilarated by the memory. "He went so fast the trees wen' WHOOOOOSH!"  
>He yelled this so loudly that Sonic jumped. "An', an', " Tails went on, "when I was sittin' in the tree, I saw this blue thing streakin' across the groun', see, an' I couldn' even see what it was 'cause it was movin' SO FAST, an' then it came where I was an' turned into Sonic!"<br>"Hm," said Rosemary. "That's an interesting story, Miles."  
>"It ain't no story!" said Tails, looking at his mother imploringly. "It's true! Sonic was a blue blur! I sawed it with my eyeballs!"<br>"I don't remember that," said Sonic.  
>"That's 'cause you were upset," said Tails as if he knew everything, which Sonic was becoming convinced of. "I sawed it, you were mad and sad at the same time!"<br>"We'll have to talk about this later," sighed Rosemary, "I have to get you boys to bed."  
>"Yay!" said Tails.<br>"Why are you so excited?" asked Sonic.  
>"I'll tell you in the morning," said Rosemary. "If I don't get Miles to bed he's not going to be awake tomorrow."<br>"Yeah-huh," said Tails, but his burst of energy had been spent and he was again leaning on his mother helplessly. "I c'n stay awake. I did today, din' I?"  
>"You sure did," said Rosemary, and she took her son upstairs while Sonic followed behind.<br>She laid him down, kissing him softly on the forehead. "Good night honey," she whispered. "I love you."  
>"I love you too mommy," mumbled Tails, already asleep. Sonic hesitantly climbed into bed beside him.<br>"Good night, Sonic," said Rosemary. "Thanks," said Sonic. But he couldn't sleep. He couldn't believe what was happening to him.

A little while later a loud noise made him sit up. Tails didn't wake. Nor should he have; he had been so tired yesterday. Sonic threw off his blanket and crept to the door of the bedroom. "Rosemary?" he whispered.  
>Rosemary didn't answer.<br>He walked quietly out of the room, down the stairs, into the kitchen. All seemed to be as it was before. As his heart slowed he thought that maybe he had imagined it. He was walking back upstairs when all of a sudden a huge shape came lunging out of the bathroom, pinning him against the wall. In the pale light coming through the window he could just barely make out his father's face.  
>"NO!" he yelled. "NO, how did you find me here? How could you know where I am?"<br>"I know everything about you, Ogilvie," said his father, laughing, "you know that."  
>"Leave me alone!" yelled Sonic, but he couldn't shake his father's grip. He wasn't strong enough.<br>"No," said his father. "And when I'm done with you..."  
>He didn't finish the sentence, he left it to hang there in the darkness as Sonic's mind conjured up endless horrible endings. Still pinning him to the wall, his father pushed him down to the floor and Sonic started screaming incoherently. Why was no one coming? Did no one care? Didn't Tails or Rosemary hear him screaming?<br>"Sonic?"  
>He stopped screaming and tried to find the source of the voice. There was no one there!<br>Was his father fading?  
>"Are you okay?"<br>He blinked and suddenly he was back in the bedroom tangled in the sheet, one of the lamps on behind his head, Tails shaking his arm with one tiny hand as Rosemary sat on the edge of the bed.  
>He realized he was breathing very hard.<br>"What is it?" asked Rosemary.  
>"N-nothing," choked Sonic, not wanting to tell her. He didn't want to have to explain it all to her.<br>"It ain't nothing!" cried Tails. "You were yellin' real loud, Sonic! It couln'tve been nothing!"  
>"Did you have a nightmare?" asked Rosemary kindly.<br>"Yeah," said Sonic, not wanting to say any more than that. Rosemary seemed to understand because she gently untangled the sheet from around him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry to hear that," said Rosemary.  
>As nice as it was to have a person who actually cared how he slept to make him feel better, he suddenly, desperately wanted her to go away. He knew she wanted to give him a hug, and he wanted her to, but if she did he was going to start bawling, and he really didn't want to start crying over a dream. Not right now, anyway. It was still late and none of them had slept very much, if at all.<br>"I'm okay," said Sonic. "Sorry for waking you."  
>"That's fine!" said Tails. "Yes, don't worry about it," said Rosemary. "That's what I'm here for."<br>"'kay," said Sonic, suddenly very drowsy. "Sweet dreams, dear," said Rosemary.  
>After she left, Tails hugged Sonic tight, his little tails on top of Sonic like a blanket, and said, "Don' worry, Sonic, you won' have another nightmare, I'll pr'tect ya!"<br>"Thanks Tails," said Sonic. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of Tails burrowing his little face into his side, and how nice it felt. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

When Sonic woke up from a semi-drugged sleep, it was late afternoon and Tails was sitting beside him, his tiny pink tongue sticking out of his mouth, laboriously writing out strange characters on a piece of blank paper. The pencil was far too big for his hand, but he continued to plug away at it with childish stubbornness.  
>"What are you doing?" mumbled Sonic, still in a sleep-induced fog.<br>"Writin'" said Tails. "That's not writing," said Sonic. "Letters don't look like that."  
>"Kitsune letters do," said Tails.<br>"Oh," said Sonic, feeling dumb again.  
>"I'll teach ya on the plane," said Tails. "That way you'll maybe know what people are sayin' when we get there."<br>"Teach me what where?" said Sonic, sitting up abruptly. "Where are we going?"  
>"We're going up north, where mommy was made," said Tails, not looking away from his work. "I'm gonna see my daddy!" He gave Sonic a big smile. "I ain't never seed him before," he finished, chewing on his eraser a little as he wrote.<br>"When are we going?" asked Sonic.  
>"Soon," said Tails. Sonic jumped off the bed and ran downstairs. "Rosemary!" he yelled.<br>"What is it, dear?" asked Rosemary in surprise. She was putting some photographs on top of the TV stand.  
>"What's this about taking a plane to where the kitsune live?" he asked.<br>"Oh, " said Rosemary, and she sat down on the couch, gathering the skirt of her dress into her lap. "Well, the time has come for Miles to go to be judged."  
>"Judged?"<br>"He is...flawed," said Rosemary sadly. "So I must take him to his father, to see if he is to be...allowed to live or not."  
>"So you think he's broken too, like the doctor?" spat Sonic.<br>"No, of course not," said Rosemary. "But it is not I who gets to choose. It is his father."  
>"Why don't you just not go?"<br>"If I don't, " said Rosemary, "I disrespect everything my husband stands for. And I cannot do that. I must have faith."  
>She explained to Sonic that her husband was a general in the kitsune army, one of the greatest soldiers of all time. When a member of the army and his wife had a child and the child was "flawed", the child had to be brought to the father on a certain date, held every 10 years or so, to be judged. The father decided whether the child was to live or die.<br>"Usually they die," said Rosemary distantly, "but I must have faith in my love. He granted my request for a child, and so I must have faith he will not take him away."  
>"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.<br>"My husband rarely gets leave to come home, since he is so important to the army," said Rosemary. "I spent many years alone waiting for him. The last time I saw him I asked him if he would allow us to have a child, so I would not be so lonely and have something to love while he was away. He agreed, and Miles was borne of this."  
>"And now you have to take him to die?" asked Sonic.<br>"Perhaps," said Rosemary. "But it is the way of things, and I have no choice in it. And Sonic?" she said as he turned to go.  
>"Please...don't tell Miles. I only told him he is going to see his father. He has never met his father, you see...I don't want to spoil it for him."<br>Sonic walked slowly back upstairs.  
>What a cruel world he lived in.<p>

The plane arrived to take them up north a few hours later, and during the ride Tails gave Sonic a crash course in kitsune. Sonic picked it up very quickly and soon Tails said that he was going to teach him how to write. He got some paper and pencils from who knew where and proceeded to show Sonic how to write-with his left hand.  
>"You're left-handed too?" said Sonic, hardly believing his luck.<br>"Nope," said Tails, "I'm both-handed!"  
>Sonic laughed to himself. He should have expected that.<br>He practiced alone and to himself for the last few hours, Tails sleeping beside him, when all of a sudden the plane landed and the doors opened. Nobody looked at anybody else. When they got off the plane Sonic was hit by a wave of pure cold. He shivered violently.  
>"Oh dear," said Rosemary. "I forgot you don't have fur."<br>"Yes I do," said Sonic defiantly. Rosemary only smiled and gave him her shawl, wrapping it around his shoulders. Sonic picked up Tails and they started walking, when all of a sudden a voice called, "Lady Prower?"  
>Rosemary turned around and there was a grey fox in an army uniform standing just outside the plane, beckoning to her. They went to speak with him, Sonic rather wishing his shoes weren't so full of holes.<br>"Is this your son?" he asked, gesturing at Tails.  
>"Yes," said Rosemary.<br>"And...he is to be judged?" asked the kitsune.  
>"Yes," said Rosemary.<br>"I never would have seen that coming, " said the kitsune. "I would have thought...but if he deserves it..."  
>Rosemary saw Sonic's body tense in anger. "We shall see, " said Rosemary, and she led them away.<br>She took them to a long line of women with their children. Sonic didn't look at them. He had seen two of the women, and that was enough. One of them was frightened, clutching her little one to her with indecent strength, while the other didn't even try to stand near her son. Rosemary took her place and they settled in to wait.  
>After a while the line stopped growing, and a line of soldiers appeared, across from each of the women. Slowly the line widened, filled. Rosemary took Tails from Sonic and he climbed on her excitedly. Sonic felt guilty when he remembered Tails didn't know what was going on.<br>After a long while the assembly began to fidget and mumble. Sonic realized they must be waiting for someone. Then he noticed there was no one across from Rosemary.  
>A group of kitsune was murmuring and looking at Rosemary. Finally one of them went up to her and said, "If he doesn't arrive soon, we'll have to appoint someone to judge for him. We can't wait."<br>Rosemary nodded, not trusting herself to speak.  
>"What does he mean, maiyo?" asked Tails.<br>"Nothing, darling, " said Rosemary, knowing that if anyone else were to judge her son, he would die for certain.  
>"Where is he?" asked Tails.<br>"He's coming, darling, he's coming," said Rosemary, hoping with all her heart that it was true, stroking his head in an attempt to calm herself down. Her heart was leaping into her throat.  
>Sonic stood very still, his fists clenched so hard they hurt, but he could not unclench them. He knew that if anyone came to hurt Tails, he would defend the little kitsune with everything he had, tradition or not.<br>Finally a kitsune from the group began to walk towards the empty space across from Rosemary. She closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle.  
>When she opened her eyes again, there was someone in the space, and it wasn't the kitsune who had been walking there when she closed her eyes. It was a handsome brown fox in a dazzling white uniform, a patch over one eye and a sword belted firmly to his waist, smiling gently at her with his hands behind his back at parade rest.<br>She smiled back, wanting to run into his arms and tell him how much she loved him and of all the wonderful things his son had done and was doing even now, but she managed to stay where she was. She put Tails down. Tails gave his biggest smile and waved at his father in his enthusiastic little boy way.  
>Her husband waved back, just once.<br>She couldn't help but gasp in relief. It was going to be all right. He wouldn't let his son die. He wouldn't!  
>Then the ceremony began, and as he looked on the proceedings impassively, her confidence vanished.<br>One after the other, children died. She felt Miles stiffen beside her, clutching her leg in fear, as he watched children older and younger than him fall before their disdaining, their disgusted, their fearful fathers. One child was very ill. One had a twisted, useless hand. One was blind. One didn't appear to have anything wrong with them at all, but when they attempted to speak to their father he cast them away with a wave of his hand. She heard Sonic's angry, shuddering breaths. He didn't understand. He didn't know that there was a reason for all this suffering. She didn't agree with the reason anymore. Not after Miles.  
>After an eternity, in which every single child in the line had been killed and it came to be her husband's turn to walk forward and pronounce his judgement, she became afraid.<br>How could he say no now, after everyone else had said yes?  
> <p>


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

This chapter may disturb some people as Rosemary and her husband have a rather unrestrained meeting in his bedroom. It's not too bad, I promise.

Sonic stared at the kitsune in white as he walked forward.  
>He could have sworn he saw him somewhere before, without the uniform or the patch.<br>"We meet again," said the kitsune, nodding to him.  
>Suddenly he remembered.<br>It was the fox who had taken him out to lunch, not long before he had run away.  
>"It is you!" he shouted.<br>The kitsune laughed and put a gloved finger to his lips.  
>"This is a solemn occasion," he said, and Sonic shut up.<br>He knelt down on one knee in front of Tails, who was chewing on his index finger anxiously, his little body trembling in fear he could not hide. He had no doubt that this person would do what all the others had done, and have him killed for being different.  
>"What's your name, son?" asked his father.<br>"Miles," he said, around his finger.  
>"Are you afraid, little one?" his father asked him.<br>Tails nodded, still chewing on his finger.  
>"What are you afraid of?"<br>Tails pointed to the kitsune who had done the killings, standing not too far off.  
>"Are you afraid of me?"<br>Tails blinked.  
>He took his finger out of his mouth to think about it.<br>"No, " he said.  
>"Why not?"<br>"'cause you don't got a scary sword like he does."  
>"Yes I do," said the kitsune, and he pulled it out of its scabbard with a screech of cold steel. Tails started when he saw this.<br>"Would you like to hold it?" asked his father. His excitement at being able to hold a real live sword outshadowed his fear and he reached for it. "Oh boy would I!" he said, and the kitsune gave it to him.  
>"Careful, " said his father, "it's heavy."<br>"Don' worry," said Tails, even though he wasn't actually holding it up, "I'm real strong!"  
>"I'm sure you are," said the kitsune.<br>He turned to Sonic.  
>"I never got your name, little one," he said.<br>"My name is...Sonic," said Sonic, deciding not to reveal his real name just yet.  
>"Amadeus," said the kitsune. "I'm wondering...how did you get to be here with Rosemary?"<br>"He runned!" said Tails. "All the ways from the Green Hill Zone!"  
>"That is kind of far," said Amadeus.<br>"He's my bestest friend in the whole wide of the world!" said Tails, dropping the sword and running to hug Sonic tight. "An' I saved his life an' everything!"  
>"What a story that must be," said Amadeus. He picked up the sword and turned to Rosemary.<br>"Have no fear, my love," said Amadeus. "You know that I am not as some of the others are."  
>"I know," said Rosemary, "but it is so hard when all you see is..."<br>He smiled at her.  
>"I shall return to you soon," he said. "I think the others tire of waiting."<br>He walked back to his place and said, "He is to live."  
>There was a silence.<br>The kitsune with the sword stood there dumbly. Never in all his 400 years as the Giver of Mercy had he heard such a thing.  
>"I'm sorry?" he said.<br>"You heard me right," Amadeus said. "There's nothing wrong with him."  
>With that Tails turned around to face Sonic, his eyes alight.<br>"Didja hear that! Didja hear that, Sonic!"  
>"I sure did," said Sonic, exhaustion seeping through his body as he was finally able to relax. He started to collapse but Rosemary caught him and helped him to sit down. Tails ran right across the space between him and his father and Amadeus knelt down once again to receive his son in their first embrace, both of them laughing in relief. As the crowd dispersed, Rosemary stayed with Sonic until he was able to get up.<br>"Are you still not feeling well?" she asked.  
>"Not really, " he mumbled. "I'm okay for a while, and then it just hits me real hard."<br>"Don't worry, " she said. She helped him walk over to where Tails and Amadeus were, and said to him, "Amadeus, I'm afraid Sonic had an accident recently and he needs to rest every so often. Do you have somewhere we can..."  
>"But of course," said Amadeus. "Follow me, my dear."<br>He put his arm around her waist and led them to the barracks, where the soldiers stayed when they took soldiers out of the front and traded them for rested ones. Amadeus had a larger room than most, which he was not required to share. He helped Sonic into the bed himself.  
>"Dear God boy, you're frozen!" said Amadeus in surprise. "That's not going to make you feel any better, now is it?"<br>"N-no," said Sonic, feeling the coldness of his body now that the air was slightly warmer.  
>Amadeus got a blanket from a high shelf and laid it over Sonic. After a few moments he was able to stop shivering.<br>"Rest well," said Amadeus.  
>"Thanks," said Sonic tiredly.<br>"Here, Miles," said Rosemary, "lay down with Sonic for a while, okay? You can be with your father when you wake."  
>"Kay!" said Tails, who was also tired from the tension of the day.<br>Within moments both of them were asleep, leaving Amadeus and Rosemary alone in the near silence.  
>"What is he like?" asked Amadeus quietly, regretfully.<br>Rosemary told him about his son's intelligence, his enthusiasm, his zest for life. She told him of how he had spoken to her within just a few days, was able to walk within a few more, and begged her to show him how to read so he could know what the words she read to him were. How his appetite for knowledge was nearly insatiable, and how she had had to show him Old kitsune, as it was the only other language she knew. She told him of his love for planes and his wish to be a pilot when he grew up. She told him of Sonic and Miles and how they had come together, and how they acted like they were supposed to be friends. She told him of his sweet little moments and how he would curl up next to her, putting his tails on top of her so he could hug her twice as much as just with his arms. When she had finished the sky was dark blue and Amadeus was near tears.  
>"I wish..." he started, but that was all he said.<br>"You can't go back," she whispered.  
>"But I would go through hell itself if I could," he said. "You have a very special boy there, Rosemary."<br>"No," said Rosemary, "we do."  
>He gathered her in his arms and it was her turn not to cry. She had waited for the embrace of his strong arms around her once again for so long it almost hurt, now that she was within it. She choked back a sob and buried her face in his chest.<br>"Oh Amadeus," she whispered. "Why must you stay here?"  
>"I made a choice, long ago," he whispered into her hair, "and I must continue to honour it, until I am discharged or until the day I die."<br>"Amadeus," she said, before the boldness left her and she was unable to speak the words, "will you make love to me before I go?"  
>"Yes, my dear," he said. "I will not leave you until they make you go."<br>"Then we should do it now," she whispered. "They can tell me to go whenever they wish."  
>"Very well," said Amadeus. "Amadeus, one more thing," said Rosemary.<br>"Anything," said Amadeus.  
>"I want to adopt Sonic."<br>"Of course, " said Amadeus. "Of course you can."  
>"You will love him as your son?" said Rosemary.<br>"Yes," said Amadeus simply.  
>He took her hand and led her to another room. It was smaller, and seemed to more of a storage area for Amadeus than anything. He didn't have much to store, but what he did have was in it.<br>She sat down on the bed and watched him remove his tunic and his sword, which he placed carefully on the desk. The sword was very precious to him, having served him well for over 600 years, and having gained a reputation as the sword that would never break. The sword was named Rosemary, and some compared it to Rosemary herself, and her unwavering faith that Amadeus would always come back, no matter how long he was away.  
>He came to her then, and gently removed her clothes, as she had wanted him to. When he finally, finally kissed her once more, she could hold herself back no longer and drew him to her desperately, their bodies so close it was as if they were as one. "Oh Amadeus," she whispered, "how I wish we could be together always!"<br>"As do I," said Amadeus, stroking her hair in a way that made her tingle all over, "but we both know that is impossible."  
>For the millionth time she wanted to tell him to desert, to run away, to live with her and Miles and now Sonic somewhere he would never be found. But for the millionth time she restrained herself, knowing that to say it would break something between them, and to be anymore broken from Amadeus would have destroyed her.<br>She rubbed his chest gently in a way that she knew he loved her to do, and he moaned in desperation, having not felt the loving touch of his wife in too long. When he did at last make love to her, it was just as the first time when they had convened to create Miles, soft and gentle and kind and so loving she could barely breathe for it. When they could take the passion of their love no more Amadeus lay down beside her, pulling her into his strong, strong arms again, kissing her softly and calling her name breathlessly. In the end the day, which had been endlessly long for the both of them, caught up with them, and they just lay there in each other's arms, at long last just together, alone with their love. 


	6. Chapter 6

~Interlude~

When Rosemary was young, she had ideals. She believed in those things you were supposed to believe in, such as truth triumphing over lies, prevalence of justice, things such as that. She was well known where she lived for her kindness and willingness to help others. So when an elderly kitsune came to her, asking for her help, she of course agreed.  
>The elderly kitsune was a soldier in the army. When he told her he was taking her up north, because some echidnas were hunting some kitsune children and he believed she could save them, she couldn't help but let his voice fade and allow herself to wonder:<br>Would she catch a glimpse of him?  
>The general?<br>The elderly kitsune gave her some instructions and left her on her own. She had only a vague idea of what she was supposed to do, but she was pretty sure she had to lead some children out of a hiding place and into another hiding place, where someone would pick them up. So she did her best. The children were frightened, but Rosemary had a natural, gentle, motherly affect, and they soon warmed to her. They obeyed every word she said, and she was very confident everything was going to go over smoothly. They were children, after all. Children weren't casualties of war. Only soldiers were.  
>Within moments all of the children were screaming and dying around her, collapsing to the dirt in the underground passage, her bare feet drenched in their innocent blood. When the last of them had stopped spasming in death a huge, burly echidna with a massive black scar across his chest grabbed both of her wrists in one muscular hand, twisting her arms behind her back. She cried out and he covered her mouth with his other hand, and it was so large she couldn't see for his fingers. He pulled her roughly farther down the passage, throwing her onto a jagged table mounted on the floor. She was strapped tightly to the table and the echinda backed away.<br>She was stunned. How had this happened? Had they known she was here? What was going on?  
>It was all so surreal. She saw the echidna return, a rusted piece of metal in his hand, and suddenly she realized that she was going to die, and she had had the world all wrong, and now she would pay the ultimate price.<br>"Where are they?" roared the echidna suddenly, and she gasped and tried to move, but she was strapped far too tightly.  
>"Wh-what are you talking about?" she said fearfully.<br>"Where does the army rest?" the echidna asked.  
>"What army?" said Rosemary, completely baffled.<br>"THE DAMNED KITSUNE ARMY, YOU INSOLENT WHORE!" he shouted, bringing the piece of metal low, and she closed her eyes and turned her face away.  
>"I-I don't know anything of the army," she choked, her chest tight with fear. "I-I was just-"<br>"TELL ME!"  
>There was a jolt and the blade cut into her flesh, into her left shoulder. The pain was so great Rosemary had to bite back a scream. She had this dim, perhaps outdated idea that maybe if she didn't react, they would go away and leave her alone.<br>"I don't know," she said through gritted teeth.  
>He cut her again, dragging the jagged knife from her shoulder to her hip. It gave her the sensation that she had been sliced open, but she knew she hadn't been.<br>Not yet.  
>"Tell me," said the echidna, in a low and dangerous voice, "or I'll cut off your tail."<br>Rosemary's blood froze in her veins. If he cut off her tail she would die. But she couldn't tell him what he wanted to know. And even if she had known it, she would not have told him, because Rosemary knew that if she had the information or not, she was to be killed.  
>"I don't know," she said softly.<br>She waited to feel the teeth of the metal bite into her tail, releasing her soul into a world that it could not survive in, when there was a commotion out in the hallway and the echidnas scattered, the one threatening her dropping his metal and vanishing. In seconds that was the only sign they had ever been there. The commotion faded and there was silence, save the shuddering gasps that was Rosemary trying to release her fear.  
>Again she froze as she heard footsteps. Someone was coming into the room.<br>They were coming back to kill her.  
>She looked at the ceiling, begging herself not to cry, not to break. She had failed to save the children, she could at least be killed as if she were strong.<br>When the footsteps stopped and nothing happened, she couldn't help but turn her head. He was standing there, staring at her.  
>Just like the photographs in the papers, like the footage on television, he was very handsome, but of course more handsome in person. On the television and in the papers, he was black and white. He was wearing a blue tunic and had a red scabbard belted to his waist, matching his red boots. It was hard to tell exactly what he was staring at, because his left eye was hidden behind a black patch. Some said he had had his eye removed through torture, some said a great battle had rendered it useless. There were a thousand different theories. He was the son of the Omnibus, the leader of all of the kitsune. He was the greatest soldier the army had ever known, his swordsmanship unmatched, his intelligence unrivalled, his mystery unpenetrable. The youngest man ever to be raised to general, in command of every soldier in the army.<br>And he was staring at her as if she were the last person in all the world.  
>Amadeus Prower.<br>"Why are you staring at me?" she asked tremulously, feeling as though she should be making obeisance or some similar act towards this, the greatest of people. It was quite a ridiculous feeling, she knew, as he was only a man after all, but there was just...something...about him that made her feel very small. He seemed to radiate power and a cold serenity. The one flaw that Amadeus Prower had was that he did not display emotion. On the field, in the barracks, on parade, General Prower did everything with the same cold affect, as if he didn't care about anything.  
>"You are very beautiful," he said.<br>She was rather shocked.  
>"Me?" she said, thinking he had gotten her confused with her sister, Eleanor. Eleanor was a very famous actress, and some people saw the resemblance.<br>"Yes," he said seriously, crossing his arms behind his back. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."  
>"But...I must look a sight!" she said.<br>He looked at her in a more appraising manner. "Dear God, you're injured!" he cried. "I'm sorry, I didn't notice." With that he stepped forward quickly and laid a hand on her shoulder. There was a stabbing pain and a blue light came from between his fingers. When he lifted his hand her shoulder was healed, the only evidence of it being a tear in her dress. She had heard of his strange powers, but had never seen any of them in action. He preferred to speak with his sword. He healed her side in the same way, and then gently unstrapped her from the table. She sat up when she was free. He rubbed at his eye under the patch with an irritated look on his face, but he did not shift his gaze from her.  
>"Thank you," she said.<br>He stopped rubbing his eye and smiled. "You are very welcome," he said.  
>He never smiled. Ever.<br>"I'm wondering what a beautiful woman like you is doing here," he said, blinking rapidly.  
>"I-I was trying to save the children," she said, upset with her failure.<br>"But you're only a civilian," he said, and he sat down beside her, rubbing at his eye again.  
>"Don't do that," she said.<br>He looked at her, and she suddenly wondered how the general of the army would react to a command such as that.  
>"Why not?" he asked.<br>"It will only make it worse."  
>"I hope I'm not about to offend you," he said. She was confused until he reached around and unlatched the patch from his head. When he was able to stop squinting she realized what he meant.<br>His other eye was golden, instead of blue.  
>That meant he was supposed to be dead.<br>He saw her staring at it and bowed his head. "I know," he said regretfully, "it is unsightly and it disgusts you."  
>"No," she said, surprising herself, "it's beautiful."<br>His head snapped back up.  
>"You don't mind it?" he asked.<br>"No," she said.  
>"Forgive me, fair one," he said, "but I have neglected to introduce myself. I am Amadeus Prower, and you are?"<br>"Rosemary," she answered dully, wondering why he wanted to know.  
>"A name as gentle and as beautiful as you are," he said.<br>"Are you courting me?" she asked.  
>He blushed suddenly, twisting his hands together and looking away.<br>"I...I apologize," he said. "I haven't done this before. Perhaps I am being too straightforward?"  
>"No," said Rosemary. "But why would you court me?"<br>He told her that ever since he was a boy, he had felt isolated from the world, surrounded by a wall that prevented him from showing the truth of himself. He did not express emotions, he said, because he did not feel them.  
>"But you..." he said, "I...I felt something as soon as I saw you. I know not what it was, but...it's nice to feel again."<br>"Take me to my parent's house," she said, and he replaced his patch and had a plane take them there right away.  
>When they arrived Rosemary quickly told her parents of everything that had happened. They looked at her incredulously, shocked that General Amadeus Prower was standing in their living room, commenting politely on the furniture matching the rug.<br>She asked him to stay the night and he agreed readily, but when she asked him to join her in her bed he was more reluctant.  
>"That's not proper," he said, a worried look on his face.<br>"Please," she said, for a feeling was growing inside of her and she wanted to know just what it was. She was afraid it would vanish if he left her.  
>"All right," he said. "But I'm not comfortable with it."<br>And indeed he wasn't. They sat up long into the night talking, with him looking so much younger without his military garb, as he sat a bit stiffly at the end of the bed while she curled up at the other end against her pillows. When it was very late she knew that she loved this man, and that he loved her. He never once took his eyes off her, and everytime she asked him about it he told her she was beautiful, so beautiful, and he didn't want to look away.  
>"Will you come here?" she asked.<br>He looked at her warily.  
>"I don't know," he said. "I don't know if I should."<br>"Are you going to try anything?" she asked.  
>"Such as?" he asked.<br>"Then you should."  
>So he carefully got up and laid down beside her, but he was lying very straight and he was staring at the ceiling nervously like a naughty child with his hand in the cookie jar. She laughed and curled up next to him. He had had a shower after dinner and he was so soft and felt so clean she felt kind of like a child. He, however, went even more tense, if that was possible, and blinked at the ceiling anxiously. After a minute or so his fingers started to poke around her arms, and when he touched her breast she shoved his hand away and sat up in annoyance. "I thought you weren't going to try anything!"<br>Then she saw how much he was blushing, and realized it was an accident.  
>"I'm terribly sorry," he whispered ashamedly. "I was only looking to hold your hand."<br>She lay back down and put her hand in his. "That was a bit easier, wasn't it?" she asked teasingly. He only blushed harder and turned his head away.  
>In the morning she opened her eyes sadly, thinking it all a dream, until she turned her head to see him still there, looking so young and so unlike a general it was surreal. He was sleeping very deeply, but nonetheless she feared waking him and so just continued lying there, trembling in his presence. He finally woke several hours later, opening his eyes very slowly and grimacing as he sat up.<br>"Oh dear God," he said.  
>"What is it?" she asked, sitting up also.<br>"It's so late," he said. It was one in the afternoon.  
>"I didn't want to wake you," said Rosemary.<br>He smiled at her. "Thank you Rosemary," he said. "I must say that was the best I have slept in a long time. We have nothing like this up north."  
>He must sleep in a cold room, on a thin cot with a scratchy wool blanket, she thought.<br>"Not that I get much sleep anyway," he mumbled, running his fingers through his hair. "It's always General Prower this or General Prower that. People aren't born with their own minds anymore."  
>"Then it is good that you are there to lead them," she remarked. He was, in the manner of all men who just could not resist, was staring at her breasts. When he realized what he was doing he covered his face with his hands and sat with his back to her on the edge of the bed, mumbling into his palms. "I am so sorry," he said through his fingers. "I didn't mean to...but you are just...just..."<br>"I don't know what you mean," said Rosemary. "I am not particularly well endowed."  
>"No," said Amadeus, "you are perfect, just the way you are. But I am sorry. I'll not do it again." "I don't care whether or not you do it again," said Rosemary, surprising herself. It was as if they had changed personalities, and he was the shy one while she was the leader.<br>"It makes me uncomfortable," said Amadeus. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."  
>"It's what men do," said Rosemary. "It's in your blood, I suppose."<br>"I'm not like other men," said Amadeus, suddenly cold towards her. He rose and went to put his tunic back on.  
>"Wait," said Rosemary, untangling herself from the sheets and standing up. "I need to know something."<br>He let the tunic drop back onto the chair he had put it on. "What?"  
>She had to know while he was naked. The moment he put the uniform on he would be the general again, and she would never know.<br>She put her arms around him and gently drew her fingers down his face. "Will you kiss me?" she asked.  
>"I only met you yesterday," he said. "I'll admit I am quite taken with you, but I don't know if we should go quite so fast."<br>"Don't you feel it?" whispered Rosemary. He looked at her. Rosemary could sense it, a feeling that was fast connecting them one to the other, now and forever. If he did not do as she asked he would be gone from her forever, and she would spend the rest of her life looking for the feeling she felt swelling inside her now.  
>When he kissed her it spread through her body, and she felt a strange peace. "Rosemary," he murmured into her ear, "I will do anything for you."<br>She held him to her as tightly as she could, his strong arms twined around her back and his fingers tangling in her hair. She buried her face in the soft spray of fur on his chest, tears streaming from her eyes. The feeling inside her now was one she had been searching for all of her life.  
>"Are you sure this is what you want?" he asked. "I can't be with you. We will not see each other for years at a time, nor even hear from each other. I will provide for you, you will not want for anything...except for me."<br>"I want it," she whispered.  
>"It will hurt so much to be away from you," he whispered. "I love you, Rosemary. I loved you from the moment I saw you, but I had not felt in so long that I didn't know what the feeling was."<br>"I love you, Amadeus," she said, crying now.  
>"Ssh," he said, wiping the tears away with his thumb, "don't cry."<br>When the two of them went downstairs, arms around each other, and Amadeus asked her parents if he could marry her, her mother fainted and her father almost did the same, waving a hand in front of his face as though the room were too hot. The both of them agreed, but barely for their shock. When they agreed Amadeus babbled on about giving her something and ran off, and did not return for two weeks. When he came back he took her excitedly deep into the forest, to a little house in the woods.  
>"This is very quaint," she said. "However did you find it?"<br>"I didn't," he said. "I built it. I'm not much of a wood worker though, so we'll have to purchase some things to put in it for furniture."  
>She turned to him, tears in her eyes. She threw her arms around him and kissed him passionately, and he responded in kind. That same day she moved from her house to her new house, although Amadeus kept protesting that she should probably stay in her other house, the new house was going to be lonely.<br>Then he was called back to the front, and she was left alone in her little house in the woods. She did her best to stay busy, but every night she prayed that she would wake up and he would be beside her, healthy and whole. They wrote each other many letters, but this was difficult, as Amadeus had many things to attend to and couldn't always write back as quickly as he wanted to. Sometimes the letters got lost and each of them would lay awake at night, sick at heart, wondering anxiously if the other was all right.  
>Amadeus was never given leave to return home, given his importance, and on the rare occasions he did get to return home he was not in the best of health. He did come once for two days, on leave, only to return two weeks later looking as if he had been through hell.<br>"What happened to you?" she gasped when she saw him.  
>"The fighting wouldn't stop," he said dazedly. "It just wouldn't stop. That was the longest two days of my life."<br>"Amadeus, that was two weeks," she told him.  
>"Thank God," said Amadeus. "I was beginning to fear how long the rest of my days were going to be."<br>He had not been off the front for the entire two weeks, going without food, water, and sleep in order to hold off the enemy. She cleaned him up and then let him rest, looking at him sadly and wondering what kind of people let their greatest hero end up in such a state. After the end of the week she was beginning to feel very frustrated and upset. She couldn't get him to eat. He tried to, she could tell, because he always tried so hard to make her happy, but he could barely swallow and when he did he never managed to keep it down. He began to weaken more and more each day, his body unable to survive on essence alone any longer. She became so worried she almost couldn't sleep at night. Only his presence beside her let her rest for a few hours. Then one day he told her what had happened on the front, and she finally understood the problem.  
>He had been on the front lines nearly the entire time, and when he was given reprieve to rest he couldn't. He was so far past hunger that he couldn't eat, his mind was so busy he couldn't sleep, and he was so dirty that he could not fight the desire to wash himself with what little water he had. He had cleaned his sword with the amount he had left, because the sword was very precious to him and he did not want it ruined. Before he had found Rosemary, he said, it had shattered four times. He had had to have it repaired four times. But ever since he had finally given the sword the name of the woman he loved, it had never broken, he had never lost a battle, and he had never had to sharpen it. He took care of his sword in lieu of taking care of Rosemary herself.<br>"Amadeus," she said, "I have figured out why you aren't getting any better."  
>She explained to him that he was severely dehydrated, and that would explain his lethargy and increasingly frequent headaches.<br>"You silly boy," she said, kissing him on the cheek, "cleaning your sword with water you were supposed to be drinking."  
>"I wasn't thirsty," he protested.<br>"But the sword was?" she asked.  
>He admitted she was right, the sword probably wasn't quite as important as his life, but that it had seemed a good idea at the time.<br>She laughed and said it probably did, with the state he had been in, and spent the rest of the month restoring his health, a task she did not mind as she got to spend all of her time with him. As long as he was ill, he could not go to the front. She did not entertain the notion of not healing him so that he could stay with her. Rosemary maintained an innocence in this area and believed that the war would end soon.  
>Then she didn't hear from him for over one hundred years.<br>As the years passed by she grew increasingly anxious. He didn't answer her letters. They were the only contact she had at all with him, and he didn't answer. That meant he was dead or incapacitated. The longer she waited the sicker she felt when she woke up each morning to an empty mailbox. She started seeing him everywhere she went, which scared her because she knew he wasn't there, and had to spend every night staring into the fireplace, as the flames were all that distracted her from thinking of him.  
>One day the doorbell rang and she got up slowly. She tried not to hope anymore that when she opened the door he would be there. She had been disappointed too many times. But when she did open it, and he was standing there, looking a little the worse for wear but otherwise okay, his things over his shoulder in a little brown bag, she suddenly felt so angry and abandoned that she slapped him as hard as she could. Then the last century caught up with her and she collapsed in tears at his feet, unable to stop crying.<br>"Why didn't you answer my letters?" she demanded as he knelt in front of her, a concerned look on his face.  
>"What letters?" he asked. "The letters I wrote you!" she yelled at him, frustrated.<br>"I never got them," he said. "And I know you never got mine."  
>"How would you know that?" He showed her the bag.<br>It was full of letters, all marked Undeliverable.  
>"They couldn't get them through," he told her. "The echidnas were intercepting everything. So they just saved them instead."<br>"So they have all of my letters?" asked Rosemary.  
>"I guess so," said Amadeus. "That would explain a lot."<br>She took the bag from him. "I'll read all of them. Every one," she said.  
>"If you want to," said Amadeus.<br>She knew she would crave their content as soon as he set foot on the plane to go back.  
>"Amadeus," she said, wiping her eyes, "you said you would do anything for me."<br>"And I will," he said. "What is it?"  
>"I want to have a baby," she said.<br>He sat in silence for a moment.  
>"Are you sure?" he asked. "Yes."<br>"If you're sure," he said, a bit doubtfully. "I don't come home often...I would never see the baby."  
>"I know," said Rosemary. "But hopefully the child won't mind. One day you will have to stay home, and then you can get to know it."<br>Amadeus had to admit, he was getting a bit old to be fighting all day, every day, for weeks at a time. He was nearing the second half of his seventh century, and it was getting a bit harder to get up after the little rest he got.  
>When he went away again he told her to call him when the baby neared the birthing date, since they had phones now, and he would come to her no matter what.<br>One night she started bleeding copiously and she realized she had miscarried. It hit her hard. Amadeus had left a month and a half ago. She would have to wait who knew how long to try again. She told him the bad news in a letter, since she wasn't to call him except in an emergency. He wasn't really allowed to hand out his number. He told her he was very sorry to hear the news and that if she liked they would try again when he came back. She replied that she would like it very much and for him to stay safe until he returned.  
>The second time she miscarried it was a bit sooner, a month after he left, and she was left with a strange empty feeling, like she was broken inside.<br>It happened a third time, around the same time span as the first, and a creeping sensation that she would never carry a child to term began to build inside of her. But the next time she became pregnant the child grew inside of her, and she felt hope again. She was as careful as possible, not wanting to have to go through all of the pain of miscarrying again, and when she got to eight months she became very excited. Perhaps she had made it this time.  
>When the birthing date came and she finally gave birth, she was shocked and angry. What had she done to deserve this?<br>The baby had been stillborn, and it wasn't even recognizable as a baby. Its legs and arms were twisted together, its head was misshapen, the rest of it a horrifying, disfigured mess. She called Amadeus in anguish, and he immediately left the front to go to her. They talked the whole thing over and decided to wait until the next time he returned to try again.  
>The wait did not help. Rosemary miscarried again after two months, and she was beginning to lose hope. She went up north to see him one summer, with the other army wives, and was ashamed of herself when she saw the other proud fathers, playing with their little boys and girls. It was not her imagination when she saw some of the other women looking at her with smug faces. They thought it was Amadeus who was at fault. They blamed him, when it was something inside of her that kept failing, she could feel it. She longed to wipe the looks off of their faces. They thought they were better than she was because they could bear children. They thought the less of Amadeus because finally he could not best their husbands at something.<br>Rosemary wanted to show them that they were wrong, that when she and Amadeus did have a child it would be ten, twenty, a million times better than their children, but more than that she wanted a son. Sometimes she dreamed of having a little boy, and she would wake up remembering that she and Amadeus had agreed, not this time, not this time, the last few times they had met. She didn't have the courage to try again.  
>Then suddenly, lying next to him in the darkness, the desire became almost overwhelming and she cried out, her heartache unbearable. Amadeus, concerned, woke up instantly and asked her what it was that was troubling her, and when she told him she was sure that it was the right time he only nodded and did as she asked.<br>It was the most terrifying nine months of her life. Every morning she woke up in fear that she would be lying in a pool of discarded lining, and when she passed that stage she feared that the silence in her womb was a bad sign. When the baby finally began to move inside of her she sometimes lay awake at night as if the baby was born already, and needed her to watch it. She prayed that this time, this time she would make it to term. She was sure her heart would break if she stillbore again.  
>One long night she called Amadeus and asked if he could come down, it was time and she needed him there with her, and he said he would be there right away. He was true to his word, as always, looking as if he had just stepped off the battlefield. He had run right off the front after her call and flown the plane home himself.<br>"I can't be gone long," he said when he got there, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "As soon as they realize I took a plane, they'll come here to get me. I shouldn't have left, it's terrible out there, but..."  
>He did not need to finish. He was afraid that the baby would not make it out alive. She smiled and laid her hand on his reassuringly.<br>"Don't worry," she whispered. "It's still alive."  
>He held her hand tight and closed his eyes.<br>When she had bore the other baby, the pain had been almost unbearable, given the horrible tension in her body that told her something was wrong. This time, with Amadeus beside her and a feeling of surety rooted deep within her, she felt no pain. As Amadeus gave her the precious baby, as it had been inside of her, only cutting the cord that connected them, they heard the thump-thump of helicopter blades as the turbulence rocked the foundations.  
>"Damn it!" said Amadeus in frustration. "Can't they leave me alone for two minutes? Is it really so hard?" He looked at Rosemary helplessly. "I must go, my love, I haven't a choice, especially not since-"<br>"Go," said Rosemary. "Thank you for taking the chance."  
>He kissed her, hard and with a need that shocked her, and then leapt off the bed and went to leave the room. Rosemary called to him:<br>"Wait!"  
>He stopped instantly.<br>"It's a boy," she said.  
>Amadeus smiled and nodded, then dashed out of the room.<br>Rosemary just sat there, holding her precious little son, who had been a month early and was so small she feared for his life, when she saw that she had yet another hurdle to get over before she was allowed to keep her child.  
>He had to be Judged. He was Flawed. She watched helplessly as the baby's tiny little tails, both of them, waved gently along her arm.<br>"Oh God Amadeus," she breathed. "Please stay safe until then."  
>In three years she might be taking him to his death.<br>It had taken her thirty years to have the baby.  
>For the first few days she was afraid he wouldn't get that far in his life. He did not cry, but he didn't suckle either. He only slept in her arms, and she prayed he would wake up and cry out of hunger like she needed him to. They were too far from the Master Emerald for him to survive on essence alone. He needed to be fed to grow. After four days he finally did cry out for sustenance, and she was so relieved that she just held him close and listened to him cry. It was such a beautiful sound to her that she had to fight not to shed tears herself.<br>After a few months the baby began to exhibit strange behaviour. He was not satisfied with just sitting with her, like other babies his age. If she was reading he had to look at the book with her. If she left him on the floor he had to wiggle around on it. Everytime she talked to him he would coo or make other noises. When the baby was three months old he started crawling. A few days after that he would talk to her in very short sentences. He had never cried very much, but now he would patiently repeat the same sounds over and over again until she understood what it was he wanted. He would look at her sternly if she read a book to herself; he had to hear what it said. The one babylike thing he did was refuse to be weaned. He did not like bottles and would not drink out of one. He also had to be very close to Rosemary at all times. If she left the room he would follow her and sit at her feet making baby noises and chewing on the ends of his tails. Eventually she couldn't breastfeed him anymore but she couldn't make him drink out of a bottle. He just would not open his mouth. He would look imploringly at her instead. Finally, she sat him down in front of her, made him stay there, looked him in the face, and explained to him that she couldn't feed him herself anymore and that was why he was getting the bottle. She told him that if she could feed him herself, she would, but she couldn't. He took all of this in with a couple of thoughtful blinks, then cheerfully took the bottle from her and starting sucking on it.  
>Rosemary, to say the least, was stunned.<br>He had understood every word she'd said.  
>After another month or so he was able to hold short conversations with her, but the strange thing was they were meaningful conversations. He once asked her where the stars came from, and she told him to the best of her knowledge. Throughout her explanation he asked her a lot of questions, several of which she didn't know the answer to, but when she admitted as much he seemed to respect her honesty and did not pester her about it.<br>When he was a year old he started reading children's books. He would sit on the floor, his tails in his lap, and read out loud to himself, his tongue between his teeth. He would spend extensive amounts of time figuring words out he didn't know, and only after a good long while of this would he ask Rosemary what the word was, and what it meant. He could read and speak in both kitsune and English, and he soaked up anything she taught him. He was able to do simple math very quickly. She showed him how to write numbers and he would spend hours making tables. He would get very upset if his lines weren't straight, and many a time Rosemary had to calm him down and tell him the world wasn't going to end if his lines were crooked.  
>He loved jigsaw puzzles and word games and he would not give up on these until he had finished them. He was still so young that he had to sleep during the day, and he often fell asleep on whatever it was he was trying to figure out, waking up to continue stubbornly on whatever it was he was plugging away at.<br>At two years old the baby was so smart she didn't have any idea what she was supposed to teach him. She gave him a dictionary, the biggest one she could find, and when he saw it he was so happy he hugged her as hard as he could for five minutes straight, telling her how happy he was. Then he ran over to it and settled himself on top of it, ready to devour every word between its covers. It was very adorable to see him asleep between the pages of a book that was larger than he was. When he got to "airplane" in the dictionary and read what it was, he ran up to Rosemary and exclaimed, "Mommy mommy I wanna see a real live airplane! Please please can I?" He told her all the "'mazin'" things an airplane could do and she took him outside when one flew over their house and showed him what it looked like. He started talking about planes so much she gave him a book on planes, which he sat down and read in one concerted effort. Some days he would take his book outside and look for planes. He never stayed outside for very long; he hated being away from Rosemary and at times refused to leave her side, but when he stayed out longer than usual one day she wasn't concerned.  
>Until he brought the hedgehog in the house.<br>It was a male hedgehog, and he was bleeding badly from jagged gashes across his wrists. He looked very young, only twelve or so, and his body made her think of starving children in foreign countries. Her son was cheerfully exclaiming over his find, but the hedgehog looked about to collapse.  
>"Miles, I want you to go upstairs to bed," she told him. He stopped talking and looked at her.<br>"But-" he started.  
>"Miles, you haven't slept today," Rosemary said. "That's not good for you and you know it."<br>"Fine," said Miles. "I will sleep then."  
>He gave her a big hug and a kiss and skipped merrily off up the stairs. She turned her attention to the hedgehog. She sat him down on the floor, leaned him against the wall, and bandaged his wrists as best she could. She was fairly certain he needed stitches, but that would have to wait. He swam in and out of consciousness, mumbling incoherently, and when she took him upstairs and placed him in the bath to wash him, he started suddenly.<br>"Who are you?" he asked fearfully.  
>"I'm just going to help you," she coaxed. "Don't worry." "I don' wanna go home," he mumbled. "I don' like it there. An' there's meanies evr'where." He looked at her, feverish. "Am I dead yet? 'cause that's the point, you know."<br>Rosemary felt a chill ripple through her. Someone had tried to kill this boy.  
>"No, honey, you're going to be all right," she said. "I'll take care of you, I promise."<br>"That would be nice," said the hedgehog, and he lost consciousness for good. He had numerous other cuts and scrapes, and as she cleaned them she was appalled at the number of bruises that crossed his body. Someone had really had it in for him. After trying so hard to have a son of her own, Rosemary could not fathom treating a little boy this way.  
>When she had finished, she took him upstairs to Miles's room and lay him down on her son's bed, where he was sleeping. Miles usually slept in Rosemary's bed, but he was too small to get into it himself. She shook Miles's shoulder a little. "Honey, what's his name?" she asked him softly.<br>"His name's Sonic," said Miles sleepily, snuggling up against the hedgehog. Miles would snuggle against almost anything.  
>"Sweet dreams, Sonic," whispered Rosemary into the hedgehog's ear, brushing a hand over his short hair, and she closed the curtain and left the room as the sun descended in the sky.<p>


	7. True Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

When Sonic woke up he felt exhausted. He didn't know why, especially since he had just been sleeping. The air was so cold he could feel the inside of his nose freezing. He sniffed once but it didn't help.  
>Restless as always, he decided to brave the cold and take a look outside. He put Rosemary's shawl around his shoulders, slipped on his shoes and walked out of the barracks. It was colder than yesterday, with a chill breeze winding its way through the tents and buildings, making him shiver. But he didn't go back inside.<br>He thought to himself. What if Tails was right? What if he could run so fast he was just a blur? Wouldn't that be something?  
>That part of himself, that had always been told he was no good and believed it, doubted it. How could he ever do anything like that.<br>But the soles of his shoes were so thin. Had they been that thin just the day before yesterday?  
>Could he possibly be running so fast he was burning through his shoes?<br>He dropped Rosemary's shawl in a heap on the ground without noticing. He fixed his gaze on a building in the distance. For the first time in a long time he banished the voice that told him he couldn't, he can't, he would never, and started to run. Before he knew it he had reached the building he had been staring at, a strange heat coming from his shoes. He looked down to see the smoke coming out of his shoes, a trail of melting snow marking where he had come from.  
>He stared at it.<br>That was impossible.  
>How could he possibly run that fast?<br>But Tails had seen him do it, and Sonic trusted Tails explicitly. He knew Tails had not made it up. Tails did not yet know how to tell a lie.  
>Still, he could hardly believe it. He held his breath and started running back to where he had come from. He arrived there just as quickly as he had left. He gasped in disbelief. It was so easy too! All he had to do was run! He started to laugh a little to himself, it was just so incredible.<br>"One more time," he said to himself.  
>He prepared himself to go even faster, to be there before he realized he had left. He did it, the path of snow behind him a pile of slush and now his feet were burning, and he realized with a start he had almost run through his shoes.<br>"Uh oh," he said to himself. He still had to make it back.  
>He ran faster than before, and all of a sudden there was a loud crack and his foot got stuck on something, and the ground below him collapsed into a hole in the earth. As he fell into the hole he hit water, but it was so cold it was as if he had fallen into liquid ice. All breath left his body and he felt the life leave his limbs almost instantly. He tried desperately to reach up, there must be more ground around somewhere, he had fallen through ice right?, but his arms would only lift up so high.<br>He forced his eyes open. He knew that if he got stuck under the ice he was a goner. He wished he hadn't opened them.  
>He had already drifted out of the hole and under the ice.<br>In a panic he tried to draw breath, if he could only breathe he could think, but icy needles stabbed his lungs and he started to cough on the cold, cold water, but he had no air with which to cough and only inhaled more of the hateful liquid. His vision started to go red and his head started to pound as if his heart were up there instead of thumping frantically in his chest. When he realized he was about to drown up north, where no one would ever find him, he tried to get a hold of himself, he had to get himself out of here, but the red faded to grey and he couldn't hold off the blackness long enough to get his oxygen-starved brain to figure something out.

When he opened his eyes he thought he was dead. All he could see was blue, blue, but then a great feeling of nausea gripped him and it was all he could do to turn onto his side so that he would not vomit on himself. As he vomited the water he had inhaled his breath came in spasms, until he was afraid he was going to choke on the water because the vomiting wouldn't let him breathe. When he had finished he lay weakly on his back, shaking violently, still unable to breathe.  
>A strong, wet hand was on his shoulder, and he realized that he had not been controlling his body after all. He looked over to see Amadeus, naked and wet, looking at him with concern.<br>"What happened, son?" he asked, his eyes on Sonic's face.  
>"You're not wearing your patch," Sonic said, not answering the question as all he could see was Amadeus's one golden eye.<br>"No," said Amadeus. "I should probably do something about that."  
>Sonic succumbed to the creeping feeling of sleep that was blanketing over him, and did not hear his reply.<p>

The warmth woke him. He had not been warm since he had stepped off the plane, and it hurt. He rubbed at his legs. They ached dully.  
>"Feeling better?" asked Amadeus. Sonic tried to sit up but was hit with a wave of dizziness. He moaned involuntarily and lay back down.<br>Amadeus laughed. "I suppose not." He got up from his desk and sat down on the edge of the bed. He was now fully clothed, patch and all.  
>"What happened to you after I left?" he asked quietly.<br>"Nothing," Sonic said, turning away.  
>Amadeus took Sonic's hand and fingered the scar on his wrist, making Sonic flinch and pull his arm away.<br>"There's one on the other arm," said Amadeus. "Well I know what such a thing means."  
>Sonic had to try so hard not to let it all out. He trusted Amadeus with a strength he had never felt before, not to anyone, not even Tails. Maybe it was because Tails was so young, though; he told his mother just about everything.<br>He turned over with difficulty, fighting the nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. He wanted desperately to be strong for Amadeus, although he had no idea why. Maybe it was because Amadeus was so strong himself.  
>"Why did you put the patch back on?" he asked, trying to distract himself from the tug in the back of his throat.<br>"That's a good question, little one," Amadeus said, brushing his hair back. "Do you remember the day we met?"  
>"Yep," said Sonic, bitterly. He remembered every second of that day.<br>"Appearances are everything to some people, aren't they."  
>"Yep," said Sonic, becoming suddenly, uncontrollably angry. He clenched his fists as the cold rage swelled up inside of him.<br>"My father," said Amadeus, "is a very important man among my people. He is the Omnibus, the leader."  
>"So?" said Sonic. "I don't care if he's the president, what does that have to do with anything?"<br>"It has everything to do with everything," said Amadeus. "If my father is the most important man in our world, then who do you think is the most important woman?"  
>"His wife, I guess."<br>"And who would be the most important child?"  
>"Whoever their kid was."<br>"And how would the people view them if their child was Flawed?"  
>"Are you saying you're this famous kid who was born messed up?" said Sonic, a thought brightening in his muddied brain. "How did they fix you, if it was that bad?"<br>"They didn't," said Amadeus. "They hid me from everyone instead."  
>"Well, they couldn't hide you forever," said Sonic. "I mean, famous kids are more famous than their parents."<br>"That's right," said Amadeus. "Therefore what do you think they did?"  
>"I guess they'd lie," said Sonic, rubbing his nose.<br>"And lie he did," said Amadeus. "He told everyone I took my eye out in an accident."  
>"Why'd your mom agree to that?"<br>"I don't know," said Amadeus, suddenly looking irritated. "I'll be damned if I know my mother's motivations for anything."  
>"Whyzzat?"<br>"I've never met her. I've never even seen her."  
>"Oh," said Sonic, wondering what that must be like. Whether she liked him or not, he couldn't imagine never knowing what his mom looked like. "Does that make you sad?"<br>"Not really," said Amadeus. "You can't miss someone you don't know."  
>"Yes you can," said Sonic.<br>"What do you mean?"  
>"Tails missed you," said Sonic quietly. "He had dreams about you. They scared him. He kept having dreams of someone he didn't know. And Rosemary doesn't talk about you, so it wasn't from that."<br>Amadeus was silent.  
>"That," he said slowly, "is very unfortunate."<br>"That all you got?"  
>Amadeus looked at Sonic.<br>"Do you really think I don't miss my son?" he asked in a low voice that sent chills down the hedgehog's spine. "Do you really think I want to stay here and fight for some bullshit made up by a group of soft old idiots, sitting in an office the Goddess knows where? Really? The only reason I'm still here is because after seven hundred years, I haven't killed enough of those damned echidnas to stop them from coming back."  
>Sonic was horrified and shocked at the same time.<br>"You've been killing people for seven hundred years?" he gasped.  
>"I have nothing better to do, apparently," said Amadeus sarcastically, but he did it badly, not being a sarcastic person. "How are you even seven hundred years old to start with?" said Sonic helplessly.<br>"I'm not," said Amadeus. "I'm seven hundred and eighty three. I think. It's hard to keep track."  
>"It still doesn't make sense!"<br>"If you're kitsune it does," said Amadeus. "Sort of."  
>"What do you mean?" Amadeus was always saying things he didn't understand.<br>"I mean that I should be dead by now," said Amadeus tiredly. "But if the Lady wants you to live forever, I guess you will."  
>"Who?"<br>"The mother of all of the kitsune," said Amadeus. "You have your God, we have our Goddess."  
>"Do you pray to her?"<br>"Never."  
>"Why not?"<br>"Because the only thing She's ever done for me is to keep me in one piece, and I don't particularly feel thankful for that. At least if I was badly injured they would send me home, and I could stay there."  
>"You could quit," Sonic suggested with childish innocence. Amadeus recognized this and did not get offended, as he would have if anyone else said such a thing.<br>"I can't," said Amadeus. "That would dishonour everything I stand for."  
>Sonic was only a boy and did not yet understand what that meant, but he was tired of trying to figure out what Amadeus was going on about. He frowned at Amadeus and turned away.<br>"I don't like talking to you," he said. "You're confusing."  
>"I'm sorry," said Amadeus. "I don't know why I started ranting at you all of a sudden."<br>"You should maybe talk to someone," said Sonic childishly. "That might help."  
>"It might," said Amadeus.<br>"So why don't you?"  
>"I haven't anyone to talk to."<br>"Oh," said Sonic. "Well...I guess I can pretend to understand."  
>Amadeus laughed tiredly. "I thought you said you didn't like talking to me."<br>"I don't," said Sonic. "But I could pretend."  
>"That's quite all right," said Amadeus. "You're only a child, after all.<br>Sonic frowned. He didn't like being called a child. He didn't want to be a child.  
>All of a sudden Tails came running into the room, his arms spread out in the air like he was about to take off. "SONIC!" he yelled happily. "Oh, I'm so glad you're okay! I was real worried!"<br>"I bet you were," said Sonic, and just seeing his little brother made him feel better, somehow. Some days Sonic wondered what the point of anything was, but Tails was so full of energy and life all of the time that he had long since decided that there must be a point to a world where little kids such as that still existed. He sat up, fast enought to prove he was all right, but slowly enough to stave off the cloud of dizziness that threatened to wash over him. He did his best not to wince, because if he did Tails would worry, and did a good enough job that Tails did not comment.  
>All of a sudden Amadeus looked up, his ears pricking a little. Sonic followed his gaze to the door.<br>"Someone's there," said Amadeus, rising. He strode over and opened the door, his hand on the hilt of his blade.  
>An echidna soldier raised his rifle and emptied the magazine into Rosemary.<br>Rosemary fell to the ground, eyes already devoid of life. An instant later, Amadeus was drawing his sword out of the soldier's body. Sonic could see a line of soldiers, all aiming their weapons at Amadeus.  
>It was an ambush.<br>Amadeus turned to Sonic. Sonic wasn't afraid of the soldiers, or their weapons, or of losing his life in seconds as Rosemary just had. But he became afraid when he saw the look in the old kitsune's eyes.  
>Amadeus was not yet physically dead, and yet somehow Sonic knew that he had died with Rosemary. There was none of the kindness, the warmth he remembered from when they had first met. His one visible eye had become empty and cold.<br>"This," said Amadeus, in a voice so devoid of life that Sonic's blood ran cold and he shuddered involuntarily, "this is why I don't believe in God."  
>As Amadeus strode out to fight a battle he could never win, and probably didn't want to, Sonic fought back tears so that Tails wouldn't see him cry. The little fox was standing there in shock, unable to understand that that was his mommy lying on the floor with all of her blood coming out of her, and Sonic's heart ached to see it. He knew that there was only one thing he could do right now that would be of any help at all.<br>He picked up his little friend and started running.  
>As Sonic ran, doing his best to avoid soldiers intent on killing the son of Amadeus Prower, Tails struggled in his arms and started to cry.<br>"Mommy!" he shrieked.  
>Sonic no longer believed in God either. <p>


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Sonic kept on running until he had made it out of the north and they were somewhere else, away from a horror his mind was unable to comprehend. Tails understood it even less than he did, and kept asking Sonic why were they running away, his daddy would be able to save them! But Sonic knew that they would have both been killed along with Tails's parents. The sadness was slowly fading from him, being replaced with a cold rage that made him feel...well, he didn't really know what the feeling was, only that it felt good and it wasn't supposed to, and this frightened him. This whirlwind of indescribable emotions confused him and actually made him feel kind of sick, so he stopped running in hopes that the blurred landscape he was running through would turn into something distracting. To his surprise, it condensed into a grassy knoll covered in giant rubbery mushrooms. Tails sniffed and wiggled sufficiently enough that Sonic's cramped and sore arms let him drop to the ground. Only now after he said that he had stopped did he notice what he had been putting his body through. He was shaking uncontrollably and covered in sweat (which was strange since he was really cold from running through the north). His feet ached in a way he had never felt before, and there was a gnawing, empty feeling in his gut that made him want to curl up into a ball until it went away. He was pretty sure that it was giving him this headache, but he didn't know why it felt that way or how to fix it. "Sonic, are you alright?" asked Tails, looking up at him concernedly. He in fact did not feel all right, and all he wanted to do was run away from Tails so he could be miserable for a while, but he knew he couldn't do that. He was the grown-up now. This was a very scary thought, because he felt less like a grown-up and more like the scared little hedgehog that he was, but he found himself shaking his head and reaching for Tails's hand.  
>"Nah, I'm find," he said with a nonchalance that surprised him, since after he said it it became true. "Just got tired of running, that's all. I thought we'd walk for awhile instead. Now we can see where we're going."<br>Tails giggled and took Sonic's hand. "You were runnin' real fast," he said cheerfully as they started to walk, rustling through leaves as they went. "You don't look too good though Sonic! You're shakin' real bad and you're kinda limpin' a bit there."  
>"I'm fine, " said Sonic. "It's when I start twitching that you'll need to start worrying."<br>This made Tails laugh again, and he did not say anything more about it. Sonic guessed he had never seen such a thing before, but Sonic had, and not only was it a scary thing to watch, but it wasn't fun when it started happening to you.  
>Tails blabbered on happily like he usually did, Sonic listening carefully to every word he said. Tails knew a lot of interesting things, and Sonic tried to remember all of them, in caase it was useful for later. He was doing this so intently that he didn't notice it was getting dark until his sore foot connected with a very hard object and he tripped over it. This hurt so much he almost couldn't stand it, and he was about to start crying from how badly he was feeling when Tails leaned over and picked up the object and said, "Wow, Sonic, look what you found!"<br>Sonic sniffed long and hard to suck the tears back into his head, then took it from Tails. It was a green gem of some sort, that sparkled even in the dim light. He could tell that Tails was taken with it, so he handed it back and said he could keep it. He didn't like the feeling he got from touching it. It made him feel like he was getting charged with electricity. Tails, however, was delighted and thanked Sonic several times. When he yawned loudly Sonic realized he had to find somewhere for them to sleep before he could no longer see. He picked up his sleepy brother and carried him into a cave. The cave had fire inside of it.  
>He sat down in a corner, his body seeming to collapse in on itself painfully, and settled Tails into his lap. Tails sighed a little and snuggled into him.<br>"You did a good job today, big guy," Sonic whispered into the top of his head. "You walked a long long way and didn't complain or anything."  
>"Thanks Sonic," mumbled Tails. "You did real good too."<br>"Thanks," said Sonic, and Tails fell asleep soon after that.  
>Exhausted though he was, Sonic could not sleep. Being still and silent only made him aware of the pain he was in, and he had enough trouble sleeping with only a headache. So he sat there, feeling his muscles ache painfully and feeling the gnawing in his stomach grow steadily worse, staring dully at the opposite wall in a haze of fatigue and a strange hyper-awareness of his discomfort. After an eternithy of struggling to force the twilight to fade into night, the light from the outside of the cave lengthened into a strip of sun that lay across his face. Tails woke up rapidly, his little body twisting in Sonic's lap. He stood up and stretched, then said cheerily, "Good morning! I think I know where we are! We're a long way from home, but you can run so fast we'll be there in no time!"<br>"Where are we?" asked Sonic, wondering how Tails had figured that out after seeing the place for about two seconds.  
>"Lava Reef," said Tails.<br>Sonic didn't know exactly where Lava Reef was, only that it was about 8 or 10 zones away from Emerald Hill. If he was feeling better he knew he could make it in an hour or two, probably two. But right then he didn't want to think about standing up, let alone running.  
>"Let's go, Sonic, let's go!" said Tails, jumping up and down. "Please let's go home!"<br>"'kay," Sonic mumbled groggily, and he made himself believe he was okay. Forcing himself to his feet, he was suddenly hit with such a violent wave of dizziness and nausea that he gagged. His empty, aching stomach sent a sour white substance into his mouth that clung to the back of his throat, and he gagged again. He spat it out and took a few deep breaths. Tails had his hands over his mouth in horror. "A-are you okay?" he asked in a small voice.  
>Sonic swallowed hard and said calmly, "Yeah, I'm okay. I...I didn't sleep very well."<br>Which wasn't a lie.  
>"Okay," said Tails, believing that this statement was the whole truth, and they started walking. After a while Sonic's stomach went numb, which he was happy about, because even though there was nothing in it something kept telling him to throw up. However, his headache got worse, and this made him cranky and short-tempered. After being snapped at several times, Tails's usual chatter dropped off. In the back of his mind, Sonic cared about this, but he was feeling so horrible overall that he wanted Tails to feel horrible too. It wasn't fair that Tails could be happy when he had to feel like this. He had saved the guy's life, after all.<br>His vision began to narrow and it became a struggle to walk in a straight line. He didn't look at Tails, knowing that he was concerned and wanting to know what was going on, but was too respectful of Sonic's privacy to ask. He started to feel guilty about wanting to make Tails feel bad. He wished that his emotions would stop piling on top of each other. He was feeling so many things at once he was beginning to think he was losing his mind. His sight vanished to the point where he almost couldn't see where he was going, but he forced one foot in front of the other and hoped he wasn't walking into anything. Which he did.  
>The rushing noise in his ears had blocked out Tails's shout of warning, and he squinted up from the ground to see an angry red echidna standing over him, fists clenched. Sonic rose and said, in a slow voice he did not recognize, "Sorry, didn't see you there."<br>The echidna said something that Sonic did not hear and raised his fists, but then Sonic's vision tunnelled to black and he finally collapsed.

When Sonic came to he was lying in some sort of bed in what appeared to be a one-room house, since he could see a stove and a couch and the bed were all in the same location. The stove held a steaming pot and his stomach growled loudly when he caught a whiff of it. Tails appeared out of nowhere, as he so often did, and offered him a bowl of whatever it was.  
>"Here, Sonic!" he said. "This is for you!"<br>Sonic looked at the food and his stomach heaved. He closed his eyes quickly and turned away. He shook his head, brow creased.  
>"No," he said. "I can't."<br>"But...but I know you're hungry," said Tails, not understanding that his stomach was turning over painfully just thinking about eating. "I am," said Sonic, trying to force back the nausea, "but I can't eat right now. Sorry."  
>"You must be pretty sick, Sonic," said Tails, his little face screwing up with worry.<br>"I'm fine," said Sonic, "I just need to sleep is all." He could tell he hadn't been out very long by the funny feeling in the back of his head.  
>As Tails went off to put the food wherever it was going, Sonic bit his tongue. He had gone hungry before, many times, but he had never been so hungry that just smelling food made him feel sick. He wished he could sleep, but the pain in his head was so awful he was afriad he wouldn't be able to. He wasn't until about 15 minutes later, when Tails came back and crawled under the blanket next to him. His little furry body brought such comfort that he was able to close his eyes and sleep at last. When he woke up the sky was dark and his stomach was growling again, but he felt a lot better, and so when Tails offered food he didn't refuse. He ate rapidly, not tasting it but just wanting to stop the shaking and the headache that seemed to go on forever, and when he had had his fill he immediately became drowsy and fell helplessly into sleep again.<br>For the next few days Sonic simply slept. He was too weak and drained to do much of anything else. Tails was always there when he woke with something warm and filling, for every time he did he was ravenous again. He had no idea what any of it tasted like, basically swallowing the food whole in order to avoid that horrible empty feeling, but knew that if he had taken the time it would have been delicious. The only problem with eating that way was that it stopped him from talking to Tails. He wanted to know if he was okay, how he was doing, and to say thank you, but having a belly full of warm food and having his sore body in a soft, cozy bed made him so sleepy he was half asleep by the time he had finished eating. After a few more days he woke up earlier and Tails was not there. He sat up with difficulty, his muscles achy from staying in bed for so long, and looked over to see the red echinda standing there, angry again. "Hey," said Sonic. "Thanks for letting me use your bed."  
>The echidna grunted and continued to stare at him.<br>"Where's Tails?," Sonic asked, throwing off the blanket and stretching out his cramped legs. He put his feet on the floor and stood up, wincing in pain. He guessed he hadn't quite recovered after all.  
>"How should I know? I'm not his babysitter," said the echidna.<br>Sonic wondered why the echidna was acting like that, then remembered he had been sleeping in his bed and eating his food. The thought of food made his stomach growl softly, but the echidna didn't seem to notice, and Sonic rather thought he wouldn't care if he had.  
>"What's your name, then?"<br>The echidna looked at him warily. "You can call me Knuckles," he said finally.  
>"Hey Knuckles, I'm Sonic," said Sonic. "I'm gonna go look for Tails, 'kay?"<br>"Don't bother. He'll be back soon. What happened to your feet?"  
>"Huh?"<br>"Your feet. You've got burns on your feet. How'd you get 'em? Lava Reef?"  
>Sonic sat back down and pulled his left foot into his lap. His heart stuttered when he saw it.<br>The fur had been worn away, leaving blistered, raw skin behind. Some of the blisters had been torn away, and the puckered flesh was held together with barely healed scabs. Having moved his foot had caused some of them to tear, and they oozed a green substance that he tried to stem but could not. His toes were caked in dried blood.  
>"You've got infections," said Knuckles. "Nothing you can do for them here."<br>"No wonder my feet hurt," said Sonic.  
>"You're just weak," said Knuckles.<br>Tails appeared with a large mushroom in his hand, but dropped it when he saw Sonic's wounds. He ran over to Sonic, put his hands over them, and closed his eyes. A strange blue light shone from between his fingers and in moments Sonic was healed. Tails quickly fixed the other foot and he clambered into Sonic's lap. Sonic pulled him in close. "Thanks, little buddy," Sonic said. "I owe ya."  
>"No problem!" said Tails, giving Sonic a big hug. "I'm always happy to help!"<br>"I don't understand what happened," Sonic said. "Why did I suddenly get sick like that?"  
>"Easy!" said Tails. "I'll 'splain it to ya. Why do people eat, huh?"<br>"Um...to get energy, I guess," said Sonic.  
>"'an energy is measured in cal'ries, right?"<br>"'kay," said Sonic.  
>"Well, it's kinda like buyin' somethin'. You have to trade a certain amount of money to get somethin'."<br>"Um...," said Sonic. "You di'n have enough cal'ries in ya to buy runnin' like that," said Tails paitently. "You runned out. Of cal'ries, I mean. An' runnin' uses a lotta cal'ries to start with, ya know? Plus also I think you have a high 'tabolism."  
>"Why do you think that?"<br>"Ya have to, to run that fast. You gotta be able to make your food into energy real fast too. To run fast you need to make energy fast. 'sides, you're still skinny even though you don't eat wheat no more."  
>Sonic did not agree with this, partly because on the rare occasions he looked at his body in the mirror he was rounder than he'd have liked to be, and partly because there was still a voice in the back of his head that told him he was fat. He never talked to Tails about this because he knew that Tails would tell him he was being silly, give him a hug, and that would be the end of it. Tails didn't know how people could affect him negatively yet. His mother had only said kind things to her son. His stomach growled again, this time a little louder, but Tails only laughed and got some food out of the fridge. Sonic didn't know what it was, but it tasted like mushrooms and pepper. He ate it slowly for once, happy that he had a friend who was willing to help him so much. He would have to find some way of thanking his little buddy, something good. It was hard, though; Tails was not like other kids. It was hard to tell what he would really like from one day to the next. The only thing he knew for sure that Tails loved was spending time with Sonic, but they spent almost all their time together anyway. Sonic knew that Tails was perfectly happy with the thank you, but in Sonic's head that just didn't cut it. He would have to think of something really, really good this time. <p>


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After they had eaten, Sonic went over to the sink and rinsed the bowl out, then filled it with water. He drank deeply from the bowl and refilled it.  
>"I want some too please!" said Tails, and Sonic gave him some.<br>All of this was a bit more exertion than Sonic's neglected body could take, and he had to lean against the sink a little for support. He hadn't realized how weak he was until now, when his legs were starting to ache and his knees were threatening to give out. He managed to make it over to the bed, where he sat down, rubbing his stomach absently. The feeling of fullness was making him drowsy again. It was a pleasant feeling, and he kind of felt like he was looking down on himself from somewhere, a place where only good things happened and he had no past at all. But this led him to remembering it, and he came crashing back down. He crossed his arm and fell back on the bed. "What's wrong, Sonic?" asked Tails, clambering up beside him.  
>"Just remembering something, " said Sonic. "I don't wanna talk about it."<br>Tails rolled into him playfully and stayed there, mashed up against Sonic. Sonic knew that he wanted to play but Sonic was not in the mood. He shoved Tails away and pulled the sheet over himself, turning to face the wall. He hated remembering. Hated it. But he remembered all of it, every second, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't make it stop once it had started. It played on in his head like a broken carnival ride, and he was forced to relive the horror once again.  
>Then he felt Tails wrap his little arms around him as far as he could and nestle his face into Sonic's back. The memory faded and was replaced by a sense of comfort and support and love, and it brought tears to his eyes. He wiped them away and sniffed a little.<br>Why did he always do that to Tails, when all he wanted to do was help?  
>When Tails was the only thing that made him feel better?<br>Sonic turned onto his back and wiggled his arm under Tails, who opened his eyes and looked at Sonic from under his eyelashes. Sonic smiled sadly at him, not quite knowing what to do. Tails whispered, "I'm here for you, Sonic," in that mature way he sometimes said things, and at those times Sonic knew Tails had a deeper understanding of Sonic than Sonic would ever have. "Thanks, Tails," said Sonic, and sleep fell gently over them both.

Over the next few days Sonic woke earlier and earlier, and each day Tails would come into the house at the same time. Sonic would wait for him to come back to eat supper, no matter how hungry he was. Sonic was making the food now, and would mostly sit outside during the day, not really up to doing much of anything else. Each day he could feel his strength returning, and he became impatient for the day he would feel himself again.  
>When it finally did come the first thing he did was set out to find Tails. Tails would leave before Sonic woke up and stay away for the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening. Sonic wanted to know what he was doing, and why. As soon as he found Tails, and saw what it was, his heart stopped and a feeling of hopelessness fell over him.<br>Tails was crying.  
>Tails must have been crying, alone, all this time, going back when it became dark and being as strong as he could for Sonic's sake.<br>Sonic remembered Rosemary on the floor. Tails screaming for his mother.  
>Damn.<br>Some big brother he had turned out to be.  
>"Tails?" he said softly.<br>Tails jumped, sniffing and hastily wiping his face with childish awkwardness. He didn't want Sonic to see him cry. Sonic never cried in front of him, and Tails wanted to be like Sonic, so he thought that meant he either couldn't or he had to hide it, so that he could pretend he was big like Sonic and not a baby who cried.  
>Sonic didn't want him to go on believing that.<br>He sat down beside Tails and stuffed his big toes in the dirt, trying to think of what to say. Sonic knew he was not very smart, but he was hoping he could figure out the right words to make Tails understand something important. After a minute he said, "You know, sometimes bad things happen, and it can make you really sad."  
>Tails didn't say anything.<br>"Are you really sad, Tails?" asked Sonic.  
>"Yeah," said Tails in a small voice.<br>"What are you sad about?"  
>Tails didn't answer.<br>"I'm really sad too," said Sonic.  
>Tails looked at him in surprise.<br>"Really?" he said.  
>"Yep," said Sonic.<br>"Why are you sad?" asked Tails.  
>"'cause I miss your mom," said Sonic.<br>Tails was silent for a moment, then moved into Sonic's lap.  
>"I miss mommy too," said Tails, his voice breaking.<br>"You know somethin' about bein' a kid, Tails?"  
>"What, Sonic?"<br>"You can be as big as you want or as little as you want," said Sonic. "It's okay if you do something good or if you make a mistake, that's okay too. It's okay to laugh when you're happy, isn't it?"  
>"Yeah," said Tails.<br>"It's okay to cry when you're sad," said Sonic.  
>"You're not cryin'," said Tails.<br>"I did when I was little. When you're older you gotta be strong so that the little guys can have their turn."  
>"I'm big," sniffed Tails.<br>"Rosemary was your mommy, Tails," said Sonic quietly. "She's never comin' back."  
>Tails's eyes went very wide and he twisted his tails together in his lap, staring at them blankly.<br>"It's okay to cry for her," said Sonic. "It's okay to cry for your dad, too. They both loved you very much, and you'll never see them again. There's nothing wrong with crying when people you care about a lot die."  
>Tails buried his face in Sonic's chest, his little body trembling. "I love them, Sonic!" he sobbed. "I don' wan' them to be dead! I miss them!"<br>"I know," said Sonic, rubbing his friend's back gently, "I know."  
>Tails cried for a long time, his body shuddering, and for some reason Sonic felt Tails's pain as if it were his own. He had loved Rosemary, but had not known her for very long, and feeling this sad was beyond Sonic's capability. He had not loved Amadeus at all, had only been grateful to him, and yet he felt a strange childish love for the kitsune he had never known, an unconditional love that only Tails was capable of. The longer they sat there, the more these feelings grew, until it reached the point where Sonic wanted to go hide somewhere and cry. But he stayed put, waiting patiently, and trying to tell Tails, silently, that it was gonna be okay and that he would always be there for him.<br>Tails turned around, wiping his face and sniffing, his face drawn and sad. They sat like that for a little while, Tails trying to shed the terrible sadness he was feeling for a while, and Sonic trying to do the same thing.  
>"Sonic?" said Tails.<br>"Yeah," said Sonic.  
>Wiping his face again, Tails said:<br>"There's nothin' wrong with cryin' when people you care about a lot die."  
>Sonic hugged Tails very tightly, having been given the permission but not wanting to anyway, and knowing that the person he cared about most in the world was with him right now, and he was never going to let him go. Maybe later he would cry. When he was hidden. When he was alone.<br>But not right now. Not right now.  
>"I love you, Tails," said Sonic, choking a little on words he had never said to anyone, desperately trying to be strong.<br>"I love you too, Sonic," said Tails, his eyes still wet, arms wrapped tightly around him.

Sonic lay awake into the night. Something had changed between them. They were closer than ever before, he could feel it. Tails had given Sonic a piece of himself, somehow. He now knew that Tails was where he belonged, snuggled into Sonic's side, and Sonic was where he belonged, giving someone to snuggle into, no matter what. 


	10. Chapter 9

Phantomgurl12344: How can I answer you if you don't sign in? Anyway, thanks so much for all of your kind reviews. And by the way, that was the end of Autonomous. There is no more.

Adventurgal: Thanks very much! No probs about the login...and in my opinion Sonic is always a smartass!

Hopefully you guys actually get these shoutouts because I have no idea whether you're reading this or not!

And away we go!

Chapter 9

The next morning Tails was still there when Sonic woke, crying a little but at least not alone. Sonic pulled Tails close to him, since Sonic moved a lot in his sleep and at some point Tails had been pushed away. He snuggled Tails, and Tails buried his face in Sonic's chest and cried a little harder. Sonic felt sadness overcome him but he didn't know why. He blinked hard. Now was not the time to cry.  
>After a few minutes Tails sat up and wiped at his eyes with his fists. "I miss mommy a lot," he said sadly. "I need a mommy hug."<br>"Sorry," said Sonic, not knowing what else to say.  
>"Can I have a Sonic hug instead?" asked Tails. "That's almost as good as a mommy hug."<br>"Well, sure," said Sonic in surprise, and he put Tails in his lap and hugged him as hard as he could. After a minute Tails let go and said, "Sonic hugs are the best kind, since I can't have mommy hugs no more." He sniffed a little but did not cry.  
>"Thanks," said Sonic, feeling good at this and a little bit guilty for feeling that way. He had never been the best at anything before.<br>"Did you lose your mom, Tails?" asked Knuckles, who had appeared out of nowhere.  
>"Uh-huh," said Tails.<br>"I'm sorry to hear that," said Knuckles.  
>"Will you be my friend, Knuckles?" asked Tails.<br>"Me?" said Knuckles in shock.  
>"I don't have none," said Tails, "'cept Sonic. An' he's my brother anyways, mommy said. An' I like you."<br>"Uh, I guess so, " said Knuckles, and Tails jumped off the bed and gave Knuckles a hug. Knuckles stood there like he had been stunned. Then Tails stepped back. "Do you wanna come with us? We're goin' home to Em'rald Hill."  
>"No, " said Knuckles. "I have to stay here on Angel Island. I've got a job to do."<br>"Angel Island!" said Sonic. "We've been goin' the wrong way!"  
>"We are now," said Tails. "We weren't before. The island's movin' the wrong way."<br>"We better get goin', then," said Sonic. Sonic and Tails decided to have breakfast before they left, and for once Knuckles hung around, although he did not eat. After they had said their goodbyes they walked to the end of the island and looked down.  
>"How did we get up here?" asked Sonic.<br>"The island was down there," said Tails.  
>Sonic sighed. He would have to jump off a giant floating island onto the land below. He was not looking forward to it, but he really wanted to go home. He was tired of being in places he knew nothing about.<br>He picked Tails up and jumped off before he had time to think about it. To his surprise it felt really good, like he was free and invincible. He hit the ground far too soon and started running. "Ooh," said Tails. "Look, Sonic! Stardust Speedway!"  
>"Huh, " said Sonic. He had heard of Stardust Speedway, where the fastest races in the world were held, but it was so far away he had never thought he'd be there. "We'll come back here sometime, okay?"<br>"Okay," said Tails, and he chattered on and on while Sonic ran, Sonic having to concentrate a little harder on his words because of the wind in his ears.  
>After running for several hours they finally reached Emerald Hill. Sonic had been paying attention to his body this time but even though he had run farther than before, he did not feel anything like he had only a few days ago. He was pretty hungry, but he didn't feel sick at all. He had a suspicion that whatever had happened between him and Tails had something to do with it. Tails could go for long periods of time without eating anything at all, and would barely even be affected. Some kitsune thing maybe.<br>Sonic and Tails recovered from their trip quickly, as young children do, and Sonic made sure to watch Tails at all times. He knew what an awesome responsibility he had now.  
>He had to raise this little kitsune, and he was no more than a kid himself.<br>So he did his best, making sure Tails washed his hands and brushed his teeth, but did not tell him to say his prayers like maybe he should have. After seeing the innocent Rosemary soaking in a pool of her own blood, Sonic could no longer believe that there was anything out there that watched out for him.

Sonic had taken to wearing gloves after his accident, to cover the scars, and Tails had long since forgotten about his role in saving Sonic's life. After only a few months his rescue of the hedgehog had faded to a dim recollection of jumping out of a tree, and likewise he barely remembered his mother or his father. His mother he did miss, remembering things she used to do at the strangest times, but the way he missed his father was worse. Tails would wake up crying from dreaming about his father, saying he was killing people and doing bad things and it wasn't true was it Sonic?, but Sonic had no answer. He knew what Amadeus did for a living and Tails didn't. Tails only missed a vague memory of the day his father had finally hugged him. Sonic remembered everything. He had always remembered everything.

So when Tails stared at his hands one day when he was washing them (because he never wanted Tails to know the agony of training pants when Tails was perfectly able to learn without them), Sonic tried to hide them so he wouldn't have to revisit the past once more, like he always did when looking at the scars. Tails already had one of his hands in his own tiny ones and looked at it carefully, Sonic helpless to stop him.

"What happened to them?" he asked in his little voice. "It looks like it hurt real bad, Sonic."

"That was the easy part," Sonic muttered bitterly.

"Easy part of what?"

"Let it go, willya?" Sonic snapped.

"Is it what makes you cry when you're sleepin'?

He felt a flash of embarrassment.

He'd been crying in his sleep?

And Tails hadn't told him?

"You clueless little twit!" Sonic shouted. "You in your safe little world, where nothin' bad ever happens! So you lost your parents! Big deal! You barely 'member them anyways. I lost my parents a long time ago, an' I gotta 'member every damn second of it! So don' you go actin' like you know what's goin' on jus' 'cause you saw me cryin'! It ain't like I told anythin' 'cause you ain't important!"

"I jus' wanna help you, Sonic," said Tails. "I don' like it when you cry. It makes me wanna cry too."

"That's all you're good for!" shouted Sonic. He felt a little dizzy and there was a red haze in front of his face. There was a terrible pressure in the back of his head and it was all Tails's fault! Why couldn't he have left Sonic alone?  
>"You're just a stupid little kid! Leave adult stuff to me, you can't deal with it! And if you ever ask me that again, I will get so mad at you!"<br>"You a'ready are," said Tails.  
>"Don't talk back to me!" said Sonic, and he raised his hand and hit Tails in the face.<br>The pressure and the haze disappeared, leaving him frozen in an endless, painful second.  
>He had hit Tails.<br>The worst thing about it was the look on his face. He wasn't crying. Or shocked. Or sad.  
>He looked like he had expected it.<br>Sonic sat down on the edge of the bath and put his face in his hands. He wanted to cry but if anyone deserved to it was Tails. "I...I'm sorry, big guy," said Sonic. "I...I didn't mean to hit you. I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't mean what I said."  
>"Then why'd you say it?"<br>"'cause my dad used to talk to me that way," said Sonic, and he knew that he would have to tell Tails about the scars and what had caused them. He offered his hand to Tails, a little nervous that he would be mad, but the little kitsune took the fingers and Sonic brought him to their room. He climbed into bed and put Tails in his lap.  
>"This is a scary story, Tails," said Sonic. "Are you sure you want to hear it?"<br>"I'm brave like you, Sonic," said Tails.

**Some people may not want to read the next part, which is why I've cut it off here. If you've read The Beginning, the next chapter is going to be more of a closer look at what happened to Ogilvie in Chapter Four. That part was labelled mature for its content and so will Chapter Ten of Me and You Together. If that kind of thing disturbs you then don't read it. I'm putting it in to demonstrate Sonic's need for Tails and to explain why he is so sad and so protective of Tails. I have hinted a little at what happened to him in previous chapters but have not directly stated it. Again, please do not read it if you don't want to know.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Something very bad is about to happen...this is the mature part.**

**I hope I'm not exaggerating but I just don't want to shock people too much.**

Chapter 10

Ogilvie ran into the house with a piece of paper yelling, "Mom Mom look! It's not a D this time!"  
>His mother looked at him disinterestedly as she blew on her nail polish. "Shut up, I can't hear the TV," she said.<br>But Ogilvie needed her to see it right now! His mom would be proud of him at last! Maybe she would give him a hug, even! Ogilvie sometimes wanted a hug so bad he would hug himself real hard and squeeze his eyes closed real tight, and if he thought real hard he could pretend it was his mom. But more than that he desperately needed her approval. He knew something was missing and it had to do with his parents, but he didn't know what.  
>"But Mom!" he said.<br>"Oh my fucking God," said his mother. "Do you ever shut up, Ogilvie? Fine. Give it to me."  
>He eagerly handed it to her and waited. He was sure he had done a good thing this time.<br>So when he hit his head on the corner of the desk because his mom had smacked him, his inner self came crashing down and left him feeling sick. "You fucking retard," said his mother. "I didn't think even you could fail kindergarten, Ogilvie, but I guess I'm wrong. Why in the hell do you think an F's better than a D?"  
>Ogilvie didn't know his alphabet very well but decided it wasn't the best time to tell his mom that. "She wrote in purple..."<br>"Congratulations. You found someone who is able to feel sorry for you."  
>"I'm sorry," said Ogilvie. "I'll try an' do better."<br>"You're not sorry," said his mother. "But I am."  
>In spite of himself he asked why.<br>"I'm sorry I ever had you!" shouted his mother.  
>"Huh?" said Ogilvie.<br>"You idiot, do you think I care about you? Love you, God forbid? I don't give a shit about you. I wish you'd never been born. You're just one disappointment after another. If you got hit by a car on your way home tomorrow, no one would miss you. In fact, we'd probably celebrate. We could turn your room into a theatre."  
>Ogilvie just stood there.<br>Then he had to run upstairs because if he didn't his mom would see him cry, and he already had a headache from her smacking him. He didn't think he could take a beating right now. He lay facedown on the bed and tried not to cry, because if he cried she would tell his dad and his dad would hit him, and it made his headache so bad he had to bite his tongue. When he tasted blood in his mouth he gave up and instead tried to let the tears fall out onto the pillow. If he didn't breathe too hard maybe he wouldn't get caught.  
>Then he remembered what his mom had said and started sobbing hysterically.<br>No one would care if he didn't come home from school tomorrow.  
>No one would care if he was spread across the road under someone's tires. Would they even bury him? Or would they just leave him there and let the wild animals clean him up? This scared him so much that he had to force himself to stop breathing so he wouldn't scream. When he drew breath again the air came in gasps, leaving him dizzy and light-headed. Somehow his headache got worse. He felt sicker.<br>He had to stop thinking about it. He had to make the pain go away.  
>Usually he could. Usually he could pretend he wasn't there.<br>But right smack in his head was a picture of himself, and he was smaller than an ant, and scareder, and he was standing in darkness all by himself.  
>And that was what he was afraid of the most.<br>Being alone in the big big world with no one to hold his hand.  
>He was still little enough for someone to do that.<br>Wasn't he?  
>He fell into unconsciousness, more from lack of air than anything, and when he opened his eyes they were wet but felt dry, and his whole face was soggy. He cried in his sleep again.<br>How much did he do that?  
>His headache was less intense but no better, changed from a sharp stabbing pain to an incessant thumping ache that seemed to rattle his teeth and had no rhythm. For a second he would hope that it had gone away and the next he would be clutching his head as his brain seemed to be crushed under the pounding.<br>He was hungry and knew it was making the headache worse, but he just wanted to hide until tomorrow and maybe he would feel better. But to make things worse a tingling was starting below his belly, and it was the kind that makes you want to wiggle and hope it goes away. Ogilvie crossed his legs, hard, and tried to pretend like he didn't know he had to go, but it was really bad, like lightning was zigzagging around in there, so he had to get up. No way was he gonna hold it 'til tomorrow. And no way was he gonna pee himself. It had taken him long enough to get out of those stupid training pants.  
>He peeked out into the hallway and was relieved to see that the house was dark. He tiptoed into the bathroom and closed the door quietly. Then he stood there for a million and a half years, wondering where it was all coming from (remembering it was partly so he could pretend he wasn't hungry and partly because he was trying to lose weight that he had been drinking water for the last two days) and feeling pretty crappy after 'cause it was the kind where you feel like you haven't gone at all. So he waited a bit (better safe than sorry) and climbed up on the counter to wash his hands. He always washed his hands real good. He didn't like getting sick 'cause as much as he hated going to school, laying in bed wanting to puke and hoping no one got mad at you because if you got thrown today you would puke was worse.<br>He got down and dried off his hands (which was very important for handwashing) and turned around.  
>His heart stopped and his mouth dried up.<br>His dad was standing there.  
>How long had he been there?<br>Ogilvie privately thought it was his dad's fault he took so long to be toilet trained. Some of the other "special" kids that no one liked told him their dads showed them how. Some of them had to wear special pants anyways, but their dads had tried.  
>Ogilvie's dad had laughed at him instead.<br>So why was he here?  
>"I heard you failed your test," said his dad.<br>"Yeah," said Ogilvie.  
>Why was his dad looking at him like that?<br>Right there?  
>He wanted to cross his legs but didn't want to be wrong.<br>His dad threw him against the wall.  
>He hit the wall and smashed his face on the toilet. His nose started gushing and the thumping in his head got deeper. If it got any worse he wasn't going to be able to see.<br>His dad started to hurt him, twisting his arm until it cracked. Ogilvie hated this part. The more pain he was in the harder it was to pretend he wasn't there. His dad started punching him in the stomach, and Ogilvie was glad he had only been drinking water because his dad always hit him so hard he threw up.  
>He started coughing and watched the blood drip onto the floor. His stomach heaved but he did not gag, only coughed again. He didn't like that either. It turned his insides to water. Like nothing existed but his hateful, aching stomach.<br>He was being hit but wasn't paying attention. It was better that way. He sometimes tried to think of somewhere he could be, other than just being numb, but he had so little happiness in his life he could never think of anywhere to go.  
>Then he was lying on his face and not moving, his body a massive throbbing pain and his arm tingling with pins and needles, and he was relieved.<br>It was over.  
>It had been a long one. Maybe the longest yet.<br>He slowly started to get up, but saw his dad in the mirror and froze.  
>His dad was...was...<br>Wasn't that bad?  
>Wasn't touching yourself wrong?<br>Ogilvie didn't want to see any more but he couldn't look away, and when it grew hard under his father's touch he felt so sick he wanted to die.  
>Why was it doing that? Why was his dad making it do that? That was scary! Was he going to make Ogilvie do that? He didn't want to but even if he didn't how could he stop his dad from doing it?<br>His dad picked him up and put him in his lap. For one second Ogilvie felt a glimmer of hope, of happiness. It didn't make any sense, but his dad was going to hug him! Maybe he was sorry for hurting Ogilvie? Maybe someone loved him after all?  
>"Your mother's not home," his father whispered into his ear, with the sour breath he got when he drank the water that wasn't water, "so you'll have to do."<br>Ogilvie was confused.  
>What did his parents do that involved all this craziness?<br>Then came the most excruciating pain he had ever felt. It was so bad his headache felt like a butterfly on his forehead. He started screaming. He never screamed when he was hit. Never.  
>His father was moving him in his lap, and he was making all these weird noises and Ogilvie was so scared and in so much pain he couldn't stop screaming. His father's fingers were digging so deep into his arms. His father pulled his head back and started kissing him, licking the blood off his lips, and Ogilvie started crying. This couldn't be real. It couldn't. Maybe he deserved to be hit. Maybe he deserved to be beat up. But why would he ever deserve this?<br>His father started stroking him and Ogilvie had wanted this his whole life, but he knew that it wasn't an expression of love from his dad. It was his dad wanting something from Ogilvie, like always, and of course now of all times he was able to give it. Then his dad started sliding his hand up and down Ogilvie's left side.  
>Ogilvie knew where he was going next.<br>Ogilvie put everything he had into stopping him. He stopped screaming, he stopped crying, he stopped feeling the pain and the rough arm wrapped around his chest. He solely existed to stop his father's hand from getting in between his legs.  
>"C'mon Ogilvie," his dad murmured. "I like it better when you cry."<br>But he didn't.  
>Couldn't.<br>Ogilvie wasn't there anymore.

When he came back to himself he forgot where he was. What had happened. Then all at once his body became one massive blood-smeared ache, with his brain being mercilessly crushed over and over again, his stomach churning and his knees locked together so hard he was starting to panic because they wouldn't move...  
>He staggered to his feet and looked in the mirror.<br>There was a scared, bloody, bruised little hedgehog looking back at him, his black eyes wide and staring and empty.  
>The day rushed through his brain all at once and he started screaming and screaming and breaking everything he could reach, because he was broken, sick and broken, and he was going to break the world because he was tired and angry and frustrated with being laughed at and teased and hurt by people who were supposed to love him.<br>When everything was broken and his throat was raw he fell to his knees and cried. There was a sick feeling growing inside him, and it scared him very badly. He wanted to let it out but it just got caught on everything in him, from his brain to his spirit, and it wouldn't let him go.  
>Then he started running.<br>He ran and ran. He didn't know where he was going. How he would get there. But he couldn't run from the horrible sick blackness spreading inside him.  
>There was only one way to get rid of that.<br>He stopped.  
>Reached through a window with red-dripping hands.<br>Broke off a piece of glass.  
>Without hestitation slit his wrists.<p> 


	12. Chapter 11

Sorry...I didn't know this chapter was messed up...thank you Pyro Princess for pointing it out...

Chapter Eleven

Sonic was holding Tails very tightly in his lap. If anything like that ever happened to his little brother...  
>"Sonic," Tails said.<br>"Yeah?"  
>"Your daddy is a bad man."<br>He rubbed Tails's head. He wanted so badly for Tails to know that someone loved him, would be there to hold his hand and hug him, but didn't know how to say it without sounding stupid.  
>"He needs to go to jail," said Tails. "That's where bad mans go."<br>"How'm I supposed to get him there? I'm not a police."  
>"You'll think of something," said Tails, confident as usual that Sonic knew all the secrets of the universe.<br>Sonic, not actually knowing them, tried his best, but fell asleep without an answer. When he opened his eyes again it was pitch black and he wondered why he was awake. He wasn't THAT hungry.  
>Tails was crying.<br>Sonic rubbed in between his ears and asked what was wrong. But Tails shook his head and refused to answer.  
>"You'll feel bad," he said.<br>Sonic felt bad anyway, to see his l'il buddy crying alone.  
>But he didn't push and just waited.<br>If Tails trusted Sonic, he would say what was bothering him.  
>"I had a bad dream," whispered Tails, as if he didn't want the dream to hear.<br>"It was about your daddy."  
>"Don't think about him no more!" Sonic said. "You shouldn't think about that! I wish I hadn't of told you!"<br>"I don't," said Tails. "The dream was scary, that's all."  
>"I don' want you to be scared! I'm your big brother and I'm s'posed to stop you from being scared!"<br>"An' that's why I love you, Sonic," said Tails, and he gave Sonic a big hug which he felt he didn't really deserve. He had given Tails the bad dream in the first place.  
>Tails went back to sleep, but Sonic couldn't. Now he was worried about just how much he influenced his little brother. He didn't want Tails doing or thinking things just because Sonic did. Although now that he thought about it, that happened a lot. Tails always wanted to do what Sonic was doing, exactly the way Sonic was doing it. It did make Sonic feel pretty good inside, but he was afraid. What if he wasn't doing a good job? What if he taught him everything the wrong way? Then how would Tails grow up? He was so worried about it he got a stomachache and couldn't sleep.<br>So when morning came Tails bounced out of bed and talked and talked and talked like he usually did, Sonic gave him something to eat and took him outside to play. Sonic was tired and this dulled his hunger enough so that he didn't have to do anything about it. He didn't want to do anything about it. He had no energy and no desire to do anything. Tails ran around and brought things for Sonic to look at such as feathers and "int'restin'" rocks, but Sonic just lay against the base of a tree and watched him, dozing a little every now and again, but never for too long. That wouldn't have been responsible. When Tails threw himself on top of Sonic and curled up to rest for a while the hedgehog was relieved. He needed sleep so badly his vision was beginning to blur. When Sonic woke up it was still daytime, but he was still tired, and wondered why he was awake.  
>There was a low rumbling noise and the ground was shaking.<br>Sonic sat up.  
>"Tails?" he asked.<br>"Mm?" said Tails sleepily.  
>"Do you feel that?"<br>"Mm," said Tails.  
>"Well thanks for the help, buddy," said Sonic sarcastically.<br>"Welcome," said Tails.  
>Sonic pushed Tails off of him, irritated, and sat up.<br>"Wha?" said Tails.  
>"Shh," said Sonic. "Go back to sleep."<br>Sonic stood up. The trees in the distance were shaking.  
>"Help! Help us!"<br>Sonic looked around, startled, and saw a little tiny squirrel tugging on his glove. Sonic did not like being touched and shoved the animal away.  
>"Whaddaya want?" he asked.<br>"We need help!" the squirrel cried. "There's a big scary robot thing and it's destroying our home!"  
>"What do you want me to do about it? Do I look like a wrecking ball to you?"<br>"Please! Please help! There's no one else here!"  
>"Go find a grown-up," said Sonic. "There's nothing a kid like me can do about "<br>His voice trailed off.  
>Who had made him so unhappy and miserable all his life?<br>Grown-ups.  
>Who had saved him when he had tried to kill himself?<br>Tails had.  
>Tails was just a kid, like he was.<br>So maybe maybe he could do it. Maybe he was good enough.  
>Hadn't Amadeus told him to do what he wanted to do?<br>Shouldn't he help others, even if only because he knew the misery brought on when nobody helped people who were in trouble?  
>The squirrel was crying.<br>He remembered Ogilvie crying, with no grown-ups in sight.  
>If he could help, he should.<br>"Kay," he said. "I'll help ya."  
>The squirrel stopped crying.<br>"Really?" he said.  
>"Yep," said Sonic. "If you can help other people, you should help 'em."<br>"That's what my mom always said," said the squirrel. "But she she "  
>"Is she dead?" asked Sonic.<br>"N-no the man controlling the machine t-took her "  
>"Well, let's go get 'er then," said Sonic, and he grabbed the squirrel and took off. Within all of thirty seconds he had climbed the hill and was standing in front of a forest riddled with animals running for their lives. These were evolving animals, not quite wild but not quite at Sonic's level either. They were small and quadripedal for the most part.<br>There was also a giant floating thing with a wrecking ball attached to a chain, controlled by an obese bald man with spectacles and a gravity-defying orange moustache. He was cackling and knocking the trees down.  
>Well, how was he supposed to climb them if he was knocking them down?<br>Sonic was angry. Sometimes he would play in the trees, pretending he could fly. It would be pretty hard to be Super Sonic if he had no trees to jump out of. "Hey you! Eggman!" said Sonic, since the man looked kind of egg-shaped. "You wanna leave some trees for us?"  
>The man looked at Sonic as if he were the dirt on the dirt on his shoe.<br>"Was that supposed to be a bad pun?" he asked.  
>"A what?"<br>"A play on words."  
>"No! It was a question!"<br>"Oh. Well then no."  
>"Too bad!" said Sonic. "There's kids 'round here you know! Kids gotta climb trees!"<br>"I don't really care," said the eggman. "Go play in a hole. That's where porcupines live, isn't it?"  
>"I ain't a porcupine! I'm a hedgehog!"<br>"Same difference," said the eggman. "Your species doesn't really matter to me, you'll be Labourbot 12-576-D in a few minutes."  
>"I'm gonna be what?"<br>"My robotic slave," said the eggman. "Just like all of your fellow forest creatures here."  
>Sonic backed away as out of nowhere came a bug-like robot with claws, a large robotic bee, and when he looked behind him he could see mechanical fish leaping out of the river, waiting to snap at him with their sharp jaws.<br>"Hey!" said Sonic. "Not cool."  
>"And what are you going to do about it, hedgehog?"<br>"I'm gonna bust some bots, eggman!"  
>"Stop calling me that!" the eggman said, showing emotion for the first time. "I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius that ever lived! I am going to turn all of Mobius into a robotic paradise where everyone bows down to me! Oh ho-ho-ho!"<br>"Not while I'm around you're not," said Sonic, not knowing exactly what he was going to do, only that he had to do SOMETHING. So when one of the bees shot a well, Sonic didn't know what it was, only that it would probably hurt, he instinctively curled up like hedgehogs do, and ended up rolling down the hill by accident. When he unfolded he saw that one of the bugs had broken and a little rabbit was running away from it.  
>That gave Sonic an idea.<br>He jumped on the robots, curling into a ball and attacking them that way, and before he knew it they were all busted and a whole bunch of little animals were running into the deeper parts of the forest.  
>Now he just had the eggman to deal with.<br>The eggman glared at him, then turned his machine to attack Sonic!  
>Sonic didn't see this coming and dodged too late, the wrecking ball clipping him on the back of the head and slamming him to the ground. He lay there for a minute, groggy and trying to figure out what had just happened, when the eggman hovered close and started to laugh.<br>"That's what you get for being a heroic 'hog, I suppose! Your speed will make you a fine robot. I may even turn you into a Constructionbot instead!"  
>"In your dreams, Ro-butt-nik!" said Sonic, and he jumped on the man's machine.<br>The man started to splutter but could do nothing about the hedgehog smashing himself into the control panel. It began to spark and smoke, so Sonic jumped off because if it was going to blow he didn't want to be on it.  
>The man turned the machine around and sped away. "This may have been the first time, but it won't be the last!" he yelled. "I will capture you if it's the last thing I do!"<br>"Yeah yeah, sure ya will," said Sonic. "I'd like to see a 'bot that can bash ME!"  
>Dr. Robotnik was already thinking of a 'bot that would do the job Sonic wondered where the squirrel went, so he went looking for him. He found instead a giant domed container with a yellow button on top. He jumped on it an a whole bunch of tiny little animals came out.<br>"Mom!" cried the squirrel, appearing out of nowhere as he had when he had asked for Sonic's help, and he ran up to a slightly larger squirrel and hugged her tight. "Oh thank you, hedgehog, thank you!"  
>"Call me Sonic," said Sonic. "Sonic the hedgehog."<br>All of the animals in the forest began to converge around him, thanking him and trying to hug him (only he wouldn't let them) and declaring him their saviour. Sonic was amazed by the reception. He hadn't expected his actions to be THAT important.  
>"Come back here in two weeks," said the squirrel's mother. "We'll have something for you then."<br>"Hey, I don't want anything," said Sonic. "I just did it 'cause it was the right thing."  
>"So few people do the right thing nowadays," said the lady squirrel.<br>"I found a couple who do," said Sonic, thinking sadly of Amadeus and Rosemary.  
>"Keep them close," said the lady squirrel. "But please return. We want to give you something. You deserve it."<br>Sonic went back home and lay back down on the grass with Tails. He was still tired.  
>But he was a whole lot happier.<br>He hadn't known helping people was so much fun.  
>He decided he would find the eggman and stop him from hurting people.<br>Then maybe he would have paid back Amadeus and Rosemary for their unconditional kindness. 


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Sonic took Tails into the city and left him with the family of a girl he knew. He had never met her, only been her pen pal when he had some paper to write with and enough confidence to do so, but she had always told him to come over one day. He had of course never invited her over. When he wrote to her to ask her to watch his brother, she agreed enthusiastically, even though she knew nothing about him. She wasn't even home when he took Tails there.  
>"Sonic, where are you goin'?" asked Tails. "An' why can't I come?"<br>"I'm going to stop a bad man," said Sonic.  
>"But I thought you weren't a police," said Tails.<br>"I ain't," said Sonic. "But you don' have to be a police to help people. You can't come, little buddy, 'cause you ain't old enough."  
>"I'm big!" insisted Tails, drawing himself up and crossing his little arms.<br>Sonic laughed and put his hands on his friend's shoulders.  
>"You sure are, big guy, but you ain't big enough yet. Maybe next time, kiddo."<br>"But but what if you don' come back?" Tails asked.  
>"I'll be back, " Sonic said. "The animals back home said they were gonna give me somethin' so I have to be back in a week."<br>"Will that be enough time?"  
>"Should be plenty. I move at Sonic speed!"<br>"Yay!" said Tails. He sobered quickly though and said, "But Sonic...I'm gonna miss you."  
>"I'm gonna miss you too," said Sonic. "But this this is something I have to do."<br>Sonic picked up Tails and gave him a big hug and he knew Tails was trying not to cry.  
>"I'll be back soon," he promised. "I won't be gone long. It'll be okay."<br>He put Tails down and rubbed his head. "See ya kiddo," he said.  
>"Bye Sonic," said Tails, and he sat down on the front steps to watch Sonic leave. Sonic felt really bad about leaving his little brother with people he didn't know, but he had to stop the eggman before he turned more animals into robots. If he didn't stop him maybe he would catch Tails one day!<br>Sonic did NOT want that to happen.  
>Now where had the eggman been going<p>

Exactly one week later Sonic returned to Emerald Hill, wondering how on Mobius a little hedgehog like him had gone from a lonely, forgotten kid to a hero in just seven days. He did wonder where those strange gems had gone off to, but at least the eggman didn't have them. That would have been bad. He didn't know what they were for, but if the eggman wanted them he had to stop him from getting them.  
>He stopped in the forest where the animals were, wanting very badly to see Tails but worried that he was late for his whatever-it-was.<br>When he stopped in the middle of the forest he almost fell down.  
>There was a red biplane sitting there.<br>It had his name on it.  
>"Wh what is this?" he asked.<br>"It's your present!" said the squirrel.  
>"You're giving me an airplane?"<br>"What else are we supposed to give you? You can already run super fast! You don't even need it! But we found it in the forest, I guess someone crashed it, and we fixed it up and repainted it for you! Do you like it?"  
>"Well yeah " said Sonic. "It's way past cool!"<br>"YAY!" said the little animals, and they started running around cheering and calling Sonic's name. Sonic wasn't used to such things and felt a little embarrassed, but he started feeling proud of himself and that made it okay. He had stopped the eggman from roboticizing Mobius after all.  
>He thanked them and promised to visit, but left the plane there. He didn't really have anywhere to put it at home.<br>Now time to see Tails!  
>He went to his pen pal's place and she was home this time, but she told him she had had to send him back home.<br>"He didn't get along well with the other kids," she said. "I go to see him, though but he was kind of better off staying by himself "  
>He thanked her and said he'd write soon.<br>He ran back home as fast as he could (and he was pretty darn fast by now) and burst through the front door.  
>Tails was sitting on the floor with a pair of scissors.<br>He was trying to cut one of his tails off.  
>Sonic snatched the scissors out of his hand and hit him. "What do you think you're doing?" he yelled. "What sort of a stupid idea is this?"<br>"Give 'em back!" Tails cried. "I need 'em!"  
>"Don't be an idiot! Why're you tryin' to cut your tail off, huh?"<br>"You wouldn't understand!" said Tails, and Sonic noticed he was actually crying really hard. "I HAVE to cut it off!"  
>"Don't listen to that doctor," said Sonic. "He didn't know what he was talking about."<br>"Everyone else does!"  
>"Huh?"<br>"All the kids are laughin' at me an' teasin' me and callin' me names an' it's all 'cause I'm a two-tailed freak! Now gimme those!"  
>The words went straight into Sonic's heart like a dagger, and he was holding the scissors away from Tails and holding him back with the other hand, two blinks away from crying himself.<br>Tails was being teased and hurt just like he had been, and Sonic hadn't been around to protect him.  
>"Tails lookin' like you do don't make you a freak it makes you special."<br>"I don' wanna be special! I wanna be normal!"  
>Sonic grabbed his brother's arm and threw the scissors out the front door, which he had left open.<br>"Lemme go!" said Tails. "You don' understand!"  
>"Yes I do," said Sonic. "Yes I do."<br>"How could you know? There's nothin' wrong with you!"  
>"There's a whole lotta things wrong with me, little buddy," said Sonic quietly. "I ain't perfect."<br>"Yes you are!"  
>"No I ain't," said Sonic. "An' I do understand, big guy. People laughed at me an' called me names an' teased me. 'Cause I ain't smart an' I was I was fat an' all that stuff."<br>"You're the smartest person in the whole wide of the world! An' you ain't fat neither, an' you never was!"  
>Sonic kind of wished the day wouldn't come when Tails realized he was about a million times smarter than Sonic, but he knew that it would come. But until it did, being the smartest person ever was kind of cool, even if it wasn't true. He still had a hard time believing he wasn't fat though. When you're told something a zillion times it gets kind of hard to ignore.<br>"Okay, I won' argue with ya," said Sonic. "But don't ever wanna be normal, big guy. Bein' normal is easy. Bein' special is hard. An' what thing that you ever got easy is worth keepin'?"  
>"But I don' care if it was easy or hard," said Tails. "I jus' don' wanna be teased no more."<br>"I won't tease you," said Sonic. "Well, I won't mean it, anyways."  
>"But you're only one person, Sonic! I have to deals with everyones!"<br>"Do they matter?"  
>"Huh?"<br>"Do they care about you?"  
>" no "<br>"Would they care if they saw you with only one tail?"  
>"I dunno "<br>"I don't think so. They'd see just another little fox. But you ain't a fox. You're a kitsune. And you're special. An' if someone doesn't care about you, then you shouldn't care what they think."  
>"But Sonic it's hard "<br>"I know big guy I know "  
>He wrapped Tails in a hug and Tails hugged him back very tight. He hoped Tails could somehow squeeze all the bad feelings away, but he had a feeling he had been affected in a way that would take a long time to heal.<br>"Hey Sonic, you're right!" said Tails all of a sudden, leaning back.  
>"'course I am," said Sonic.<br>"Well, you tried to do the easy thing an' kill yourself, right?"  
>"Yep," said Sonic, his mind now on the cuts on his hands.<br>"Well, I saved ya din' I?"  
>"You sure did," said Sonic, knowing Tails had no idea what had happened.<br>"But you din' kill yourself again! You started doin' the hard thing, an' now nobody has to be a robot right Sonic?"  
>"Right, Tails," said Sonic, trying to make sense of his two-year-old logic. He thought he almost understood but couldn't quite get it.<br>"Hey, I got somethin' for ya," said Sonic. "Oh, and Tails?"  
>"Yeah-huh?"<br>"Sorry I yelled and hit you," said Sonic. "I was I just didn't know what to do when I saw you doin' that. Don't you know that if you cut off one of your tails you'll die?"  
>"I will?"<br>"You gots your spirit in there," said Sonic. "That's what makes you a kitsune, silly."  
>"Oh," said Tails. "That's kinda scary. I din't wanna die, Sonic."<br>"Well well, come to me if you do," said Sonic, not wanting to suggest anything to the impressionable child but wanting Tails to know that he could tell Sonic ANYTHING.  
>"I will!" said Tails, and he grabbed Sonic's hand.<br>Sonic took him up the hill and showed him the plane.  
>"Oh my gosh!" said Tails. "A real live airplane! Can I touch it?"<br>"Sure," said Sonic.  
>"It's got your name on it," said Tails, running his little hand over the body.<br>"The animals gave it to me for saving them," he said.  
>"Cool present bro!" said Tails. "I wanna sit in it, can I?"<br>"'course you can," said Sonic, and Tails scrambled over the side and into the cockpit.  
>"Oh, this is SO COOL!" said Tails, jumping up and down. "I never thought I'd see a true plane ever in my life!"<br>"It's yours," said Sonic.  
>Tails stopped jumping and looked over the side at Sonic.<br>"Huh?"  
>"It's yours," repeated Sonic.<br>"But I din't save the amimals. You did."  
>"So?" said Sonic. "They gave it to me. I'm giving it to you. I can pick what to do with it."<br>Tails jumped out of the plane and ran over and gave Sonic a hug, and he was crying and laughing and thanking Sonic for the "super 'mazin'" present, and Sonic was laughing too and telling him it was no probs, he deserved it.  
>"Can we drive it? Please?" said Tails.<br>"Do you know how to fly a plane?"  
>"Duh," said Tails. "I din't read all them plane books and learn nothin' you know."<br>Sonic laughed, and even though it wasn't that funny he couldn't stop, it just felt so nice to be so happy for a change. Of course Tails didn't want to be left out so he started laughing too, and they were both just standing there laughing and laughing until they were crying and could't breathe.  
>Eventually Sonic calmed down and wiped the tears out of his eyes, for once out of happiness instead of misery, and he jumped onto the wing of the plane. His legs were super strong now from all of the running he did catching Dr. Robotnik.<br>"Oh boy oh boy!" said Tails.  
>"Let's speed, keed!" said Sonic.<br>Tails did indeed know how to fly the plane and was soon flying it like he had been born to. Sonic just stood there on the wing, savouring the feeling of freedom that standing in the sky gave him. "Sonic Sonic Sonic," said Tails.  
>"What, kiddo?"<br>"Can I come with you next time? Please? Promise I won't get in the way!"  
>"If there is a next time " maybe."<br>"Betcha ya can't run faster than I can fly this plane," said Tails.  
>"Bet I can," said Sonic.<br>"Nuh-uh," said Tails.  
>"Yeah-huh," said Sonic.<br>"'kay, I'll land it and we can have a race," said Tails.  
>"Nah, I'll do it my way," said Sonic, and he jumped off the plane and hit the ground running. <p>


End file.
